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Eagles Coaches Not Planning a Return to Facility Until Training Camp

Even though the NovaCare Complex will reopen in South Philly on June 5, a small group of employees won't return until June 8, and none of them will be Doug Pederson or his staff
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The NovaCare Complex can open its doors on Friday, but that doesn’t mean Eagles coaches will rush back to their South Philly headquarters bright and early even though they are allowed to emerge from the hibernation of their home offices and return to work.

The organization has decided to have only a limited number of employees return to the building but will wait until Monday.

The facility has been closed since March 13 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Head coach Doug Pederson and his staff will not join the small group of returning employees, content in how the virtual offseason is progressing.

The program began on April 27, after the NFL draft ended, and Pederson has been pleased enough with how things are going that he is content keeping things virtual for now.

“It's a voluntary offseason program, but we had just about – well, on the first phone call message, we had everybody involved, and we've continued to have everybody involved,” said Pederson on May 19. “That's exciting because guys are taking this thing seriously.”

Pederson wanted a virtual program in place to acclimate many of his new coaches, as well as the Eagles’ new director of sports performance, Ted Rath.

“I definitely had time to think about the offseason when we had to leave our building around March 13th, March 14th at that time,” said Pederson. “It gave me time to prepare and time to think about how I wanted to handle the offseason. I just felt like with so many new staff members, even Ted Rath being new to the team, new to the sports performance department, that I wanted our guys to be exposed as much as I could to him and our strength and conditioning staff.

“I basically wanted to put our guys in an offseason program. I wanted them to work out. I wanted to do meetings.”

While coaches are allowed to return, per a memo from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that surfaced on Thursday, players have yet to be given the OK to go back.

Even when the green light is given to players, chances are the Eagles may opt to keep things virtual with the hope of opening a training camp at the end of July, which makes some sense considering the risk it would be to fly players in for a couple of weeks in June then fly them out then back again for camp.

The downside of that is there will likely be no minicamp in Philly.

Opening along with NovaCare is the Eagles’ stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, where the team store is located as well as various team business offices.

The Eagles are not allowed to have more than 100 people combined at a single time at the NovaCare Complex and Lincoln Financial Field.

The NFL said in its memo that every team's coaching staff is allowed to return to their facilities on Friday provided they have received the necessary permission from state and local officials to reopen.

The Eagles will have that permission as of 12:01 a.m. Friday morning when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf moves Philadelphia and its surrounding county suburbs will move to the yellow phase under guidelines established to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The Eagles released a statement that read:

"Over the last 12 weeks, our organization has remained connected, united, and focused on our preparations for the upcoming season. We have been planning for and will begin a phased approach of gradually returning a limited number of employees to the NovaCare Complex and Lincoln Financial Field beginning Monday, June 8 in compliance with the state and local guidelines, NFL policies, and in consultation with medical experts.

“While the majority of our employees will continue to work from home, the virtual collaboration over the past three months has proven that the contributions and value of our employees is not dependent upon their physical presence at the facility.

"Coaches and players will continue their preparations for the 2020 season remotely, with the goal of returning to the facility for Training Camp in July. We look forward to taking this step to re-open our facilities. We will remain in close communication with the league and public officials as we monitor developments and will follow all necessary guidelines and precautions to maintain a healthy and safe environment for our employees."