Doug Pederson deserves Coach of the Year consideration for Eagles

With the annual NFL Awards season on the horizon, many will start making cases for various players and coaches, and Doug Pederson may have as strong a case as any.

Does Doug Pederson deserve to be part of the conversation for Coach of the Year after looking at what he’s accomplished with the Philadelphia Eagles this season?

In the NFL, the debate for MVP is one that seemingly lasts all season long, with various talking heads on television or random friends at a bar having their choice.

While Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson seems to have that locked up at this point, the debate for NFL’s Coach of the Year isn’t as cut and dry.

Baltimore’s John Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers‘ Kyle Shanahan are the two most popular picks for guiding their squads to home-field advantage in their respective conferences despite not being popular picks to do so before the season.

The “trendy” picks are guys like Sean McDermott, who has taken the Buffalo Bills to the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

Better yet, there’s also Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, who took a team that many thought were tanking to five wins with many close games and a roster that played very hard for him despite the preseason “tanking” label.

Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints should get votes as well for going 5-1 with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback while Drew Brees was injured. Pittsburgh Steelers head honcho Mike Tomlin is another trendy pick, for taking a team ravaged by injury to within a game of a playoff berth.

Speaking of injured teams and the playoffs, there seems to be no love for Pederson when it comes to coach of the year.

While quarterback Carson Wentz has been (deservedly) getting a lot of praise for taking a ragtag bunch of backs and receivers to a division title, there were a plethora of injuries throughout the roster throughout the season.

Pederson has done an absolutely fantastic job making sure the team stayed the course amidst the chaos, culminating in a division title despite the odds.

This is also the third year in a row that Pederson has done this with the Eagles.

For the third-straight season, Pederson has guided an injury-riddled Eagles team to the playoffs.

In 2017, the team won the Super Bowl, but the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay won the award for, as many thought, “revolutionizing offense” at the time.

Pederson did it again a season ago in 2018, albeit with a divisional round exit, but the Chicago Bears Matt Nagy received the award for pretty much the same reason as McVay.

For what it’s worth, the Rams and Bears will be watching the playoffs from home in 2019 while Pederson will be coaching in them. Pederson is also 4-0 against McVay and Nagy.  Do with that nugget what you will.

While it’s likely that Pederson will be spurned once again for the NFL’s Coach of the Year, he should at the very least get votes. His name hasn’t come up much yet but perhaps a third-straight magical playoff run with a clipped-winged Eagles team could sway the opinion of some of the voters.

First thing’s first, he needs to have his team prepared for the Seattle Seahawks. Awards are nice, but playoff wins are sweeter.