Eagles complete interview with Coughlin

The Philadelphia Eagles are hiring Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson as their head coach.

Pederson would continue coaching for the Chiefs until their season is over, whether it ends with a playoff loss or a Super Bowl victory.

Now that Chip Kelly has been hired as the new coach for the San Francisco 49ers, Doug Pederson has been brought in the fix the Philadelphia Eagles which is a pretty tall order.

Pederson, who started nine games at quarterback for the Eagles in 1999, also could be looking at former Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz, who was most recently the Buffalo Bills’ defensive coordinator in 2014, before spending 2015 as a consultant for the NFL’s officiating department. Running backs coach Eric Bieniemy has also been lauded for his work this year, and could receive interest as an offensive coordinator. “Unfortunately, he’s got a head coach who’s an offensive guy, so he doesn’t get enough credit for what he does, but I have full trust to turn the whole game over to him and let him call”.

The Eagles have interviewed five candidates since firing Chip Kelly on December 29.

While Tom Coughlin is enticing, fresh off his time in NY with a couple of championships and a backlog of opponent knowledge, age and desire are not exactly non-factors.

Pederson evolved into the starter in his last two years at Northeast Louisiana, the alma mater of such Eagles as quarterback Bubby Brister (1993) and wide receiver Don Zimmerman (1972).

Pederson has spent seven seasons coaching in the NFL. Before going to Kansas City, he was Reid’s quarterbacks coach in Philadelphia after starting as a quality control coach. We weren’t hiring a line cook at a restaurant here – we were hiring a head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Pederson met with the team in Kansas City.

“They follow that up by saying they’ve become better men, better husbands, better fathers, better friends due to their experience having been a New York Giant”.

Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News was the first to report the news Thursday evening while ESPN’s Adam Schefter would later confirm.

Coughlin, during his tour as wide receivers coach of the Eagles helped develop Mike Quick, one of the team’s all-time great receivers.

When discussing what he wanted from a new head coach, team owner Jeffrey Lurie emphasized an ability to relate to players. “The things I’ve learned from Coach Reid … if it’s in my future to become a head coach, then there’s a lot of great examples of him leading a team and an organization that I can use in my future as well”.