Not So Fast on Eagles' Offensive Changes
His wife’s interior-design skills were the architect of Doug Pederson’s much-discussed Zoom set and maybe aesthetics were the ultimate goal, but something else was accomplished by putting the Eagles coach’s two replica Lombardi Trophies in the background.
It’s what the kids today call a flex.
Pederson has done a thing or two in this industry as a backup to Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Dan Marino and Brett Favre, and as a coach after learning along the way from brilliant minds like Don Shula, Mike Holmgren, and Andy Reid.
He also just finished a season in which his offense was top-five in both third-down efficiency and red-zone success, the kind of situational success Pederson has stressed since returning to Philadelphia.
And Pederson did that with players like Boston Scott and Greg Ward, options once dismissed as practice-squad guys and now embraced by at least pockets of the fan base.
That obvious contradiction is lost on most in what has become a microwave culture that is onto the next thing long before the autopsy is even finished on the previous one.
Consider Pederson’s offense once generated 41 points to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl championship against the greatest coach in NFL history with a backup quarterback and against a defensive coordinator in Matt Patricia, who had already been hired by the Detroit Lions to be their head coach.
Think about how mind-boggling that previous sentence is. If Nostrodamus predicted that at the start of the 2017 season he’d be known as Michel the nut job from France.
Fast forward less than three calendar years and everyone wants a change in Pederson’s offense from the owner to the fans who like eyewash to fool the defense as if Reid’s current success in Kansas City is predicated on that fake orbit motion rather than Patrick Mahomes or Tyreek Hill.
Pederson isn’t doubting himself, however.
“We didn't overhaul the entire offense, and keep in mind, this offense won a world championship a couple of seasons ago, so we are just finding ways to make it better at this time,” the coach explained during a video conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
If you look at the Eagles in Week 1 last season with DeSean Jackson understand you were watching the offense in the playoffs scaled back to make up for a lot of personnel deficiencies.
Overachieving was spun as underachieving by those spoiled by Super Bowl LII and like a lot of coaches, Pederson was forced to change for the sake of change with a host of names replacing former offensive coordinator Mike Groh and Aaron Moorehead the latest to take a stab at the black hole that has been the WR coach in Philadelphia.
Different names are just that, though.
“I don't think, from the naked eye, you're going to see a ton of different concepts, different ideas, different things,” Pederson said. “What you're going to see from our standpoint is subtleties within what we do as an offense: protections, the play-action game, screens, even the run game.”
The biggest change comes with new senior offensive assistant Rich Scangarello, the former OC in Denver last season who has a history with Kyle Shanahan, the head coach in San Francisco who is considered the guy in the NFL when it comes to play action.
Marty Mornhinweg was also brought back as a senior offensive consultant to implement some of the Baltimore running concepts. Add in passing game analyst Andrew Breiner and you have a lot of new sounding boards, but the results are going to be tweaked on the teaching level, not wholesale philosophy changes.
The too-many-chefs-in-the-kitchen theory has been speculated upon and no one will really know how this unconventional setup will work until it’s unveiled.
Or do we?
If you’re a betting man put money on the west-coast offense married with spread concepts and RPOs, the kind of thing a Super Bowl-winning coach has already famous.
“I think overall," said Pederson, "you are not going to see big, wholesale changes."
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
