Doug Pederson shouldn’t be fired, he just needs an offensive coordinator

Doug Pederson is not a bad football coach, he just needs a little help.

The disappointment that has been the first nine games of the 2020 NFL season for the Philadelphia Eagles has many calling for both quarterback Carson Wentz and head coach Doug Pederson’s heads. While both have underperformed, there’s a little more to the story when it comes to both, especially with the coach, so there isn’t a need to make a rash decision in a pandemic-altered season with no real offseason.

What can’t be stressed enough is that Doug Pederson isn’t a bad football coach, and no, he shouldn’t be fired. No, he isn’t the greatest play-caller, and for whatever reason, that’s especially true in the cases where Philly is in short-yardage situations and two-point conversions. Pederson is an excellent leader of men, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that he just may not be an x’s and o’s guy.

Now, don’t hear what isn’t being said. Pederson is no dummy. Over the course of the last two and a half years, his team has been ravaged by injury. Because of that, Pederson, and the team as a whole didn’t know who would be protecting Carson Wentz, who would be running routes or anything else week to week. For that reason, Pederson has had to essentially develop gameplans on the fly. Taking that into account, it’s a pretty remarkable feat that he’s been able to lead the Eagles to the playoffs every year since 2017. Oh, and by the way, he won the Super Bowl with his backup quarterback.

Frank Reich was the offensive coordinator for the Eagles’ magical 2017 season. While Pederson was still the play-caller then, much of his success came as a result of Reich’s input, and he hasn’t enjoyed the same level of success on offense since Reich departed to become the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. The Eagles promoted Mike Groh to fill the void, and his two seasons as offensive coordinator were abysmal. In 2020, Pederson took over as the de-facto offensive coordinator, and it’s looking like he’s in danger of hitting rock bottom.

The Eagles have two options. They can bring in a real offensive coordinator for Pederson to consult about his play-calling (Rich Scangarello and Marty Mornhinweg don’t count), but the latter does have head-coaching experience. That’s a plus. The second option is this. Pederson could delegate the play-calling duties. He said he had no intention of doing so, but we can dream, right? Might Duce Staley be someone that could call plays?

Regardless of which avenue the Eagles travel, something needs to change with the offense, and it’s obvious. That doesn’t mean that Pederson should be fired. Super Bowl-winning coaches are hard to come by, and you shouldn’t fire one that’s taken his team to the playoffs in three straight seasons. Here’s the fact of the matter. Doug Pederson is a solid football coach, and he doesn’t need to be fired. He just needs an offensive coordinator.