Eagles to hire former Calvary boss Doug Pederson as HC

The Eagles will hire Doug Pederson, the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Philadelphia Daily News reporter Les Bowen first reported.

The Chiefs visit the reigning Super Bowl champions for a playoff game Saturday.

With top candidates dropping like the Eagles’ inside linebackers, the only candidates left the team had interviewed are running backs coach Duce Staley, interim coach Pat Shurmur and Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson. No further interviews are scheduled.”Pederson started the first nine games at quarterback in Andy Reid’s first season as Eagles head coach in 1999″. Pederson followed Reid to Kansas City to become offensive coordinator. I think he’s ready for anything that anybody throws at him.

The assistant thought to be hired already is Ken Flajole, who was set to become defensive coordinator at the University of Texas-El Paso when the school announced Thursday that he had accepted a position with the Eagles, who have not confirmed the hiring. Pederson was identified as a target from the beginning of this search when Chip Kelly was sacked on December 29.

Who do you think was the Eagles’ first choice in their search for a head coach? A native of Bellingham, Wash., Pederson began his career as an undrafted free agent out of Northeast Louisiana, bouncing on and off the Dolphins’ practice squad and spending time in the World League of American Football (later NFL Europe) with the New York/New Jersey Knights before joining Miami in 1993.

“I went up to him after that and put my arm around him and told him it would be all right”, said Rick Brudwick, who is a cousin of Pederson and started his assistant coaching career at Ferndale that same year.

According to rankings by ESPN, Pederson’s hire was the worst hire of a head coach to this point.

We’ll find out today if this source turns out to be accurate or not as the Eagles will surely respond for end of the week news. Speculation has been that Pederson is a glorified quarterbacks coach, and Andy Reid is the team’s play-caller but Andy Reid shot down that speculation earlier this year admitting that the play calling is occasionally split between Reid and Pederson.

In Pederson, Lurie fulfills his wish of finding a coach closely linked with Reid, the winningest coach in Eagles history.

He cited a game in 2001, after Pederson had returned to Green Bay to back up Brett Favre.

So either the Eagles have violated the rule by agreeing to strike an agreement with Pederson, or the Eagles simply assume that Pederson will eventually agree to terms. He coached there for four seasons, compiling a 41-10 record.