Eagles appoint Pederson as head coach

Doug Pederson, who helped groom Donovan McNabb for the starting-quarterback job and a successful playoff run, was hired Monday to be Philadelphia’s head coach. He thanked the people he worked with in Kansas City, including former Eagles coach Andy Reid, who he called “one of my mentors”.

Pederson was linked as the leading candidate last week, but the Eagles couldn’t hire him until after the Chiefs were out of the playoffs, which occurred following Saturday’s 27-20 loss to the New England Patriots.

Pederson replaces Chip Kelly, who was sacked one game before completing his third season.

Doug Pederson stood off to the side listening to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie tell a packed press conference how he whittled down his original list of coaching candidates from 25, then to 10, then to six and ultimately down to Pederson.

“I think Sam’s a quality quarterback, I think he’s a top-notch quarterback”, Pederson said. He said that he returned not seeking a head coaching job down the road, but to look at a big picture for the Eagles franchise.

With Pederson now with the Eagles, Reid said Sunday he doesn’t anticipate losing too many members of the Chiefs coaching staff to Philadelphia.

“The fans just want to win”, Lurie said.

“We are excited to introduce Doug Pederson as our new head coach”. Pederson said he’s still evaluating the position despite reports that former Chargers offensive coordinator Frank Reich would take over. Pederson hedged when asked if he had authority over the 53-man roster the Eagles will take into the 2016 season.

“One, I wanted to get a jump start on our head coaching search”, the Eagles’ owner said. “We knew we were gonna score, we knew we had timeouts and time”.

Pederson is of the Reid Coaching Tree, but on Tuesday made sure to emphasize he’s not an Andy Reid clone.

Over the past two seasons, Travis Kelce has caught 139 balls for 1,737 yards and 10 touchdowns, leading the Chiefs in all three categories during that span. The young tight end credits a large portion of his success to Pederson’s impressive offensive mind, noting also that the former quarterback is an incredibly approachable and thoughtful leader.

The Chiefs have scored 400 points or more in a season only eight times dating all the way back to the days of the Dallas Texans (1960), and two of those seasons have been with Pederson as offensive coordinator. Lurie spoke with several Eagles players after canning Kelly, now head coach of the 49ers. This is a Philadelphia Eagle football team. It was time for Reid to go, but all one needs to do is look at the postseason scoreboard since Lurie moved on to Kelly in 2013.

And I believe when he sees what he has he’ll put them in a 4-3, with some variations of a wide-9.

McCarthy seldom calls players out publicly, but this marked the second time this year that he had done so with Lacy.