A Look at Why the Eagles Decided to Part Ways with Doug Pederson

The next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles is likely going to have to roll with Carson Wentz as the teams quarterback if they want the job.

That according to multiple reports, including Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.

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"Make no mistake, if Doug Pederson was back with the Eagles, Wentz would have wanted not to be," Rapoport explained on the NFL Network on Sunday.  Now there is going to be a new coach, and from what I understand, the Eagles brass has told coaching candidates that they are not only open to bringing Wentz back, but want to bring him back.  They think he is fixable, they think he is salvageable.

They haven't chosen him over Jalen Hurts, they like Hurt too, but their priority with a new coach is to make sure Wentz is as good as he was before."

There are a lot of factors that play into this obviously, and while they didn't expect to be in the middle of a coaching search to find someone to help fix Wentz, it will be a big factor in who gets the job.

"What the team is telling head coach candidates in interviews is the new coach will have a big say in how they handle the quarterback situation," said Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network. But that they do believe in Wentz and want him back.  So if your a head coach going into those meetings and saying I want Wentz out ans Hurts in, that's probably going to hurt your standing in this interview process."

So did the Eagles essentially pick Wentz over Doug Pederson?  Did Pederson want to move on from Wentz and go with Hurts moving forward?  There have been reports of a fractured relationship between Wentz and Pederson. Could that have led to the two parties unexpectedly parting ways?

While all this could be true and have played a part, it sounds more like Pederson wanting not only wanting to promote Press Taylor to the offensive coordinator position, but also retain many of the current staff, could have been the straw that broke the camels back.

"Pederson was pushing the agenda of not just Press Taylor being his offensive coordinator, but he wanted, pretty strongly, to come back with a lot of the same staff," said Adam Caplan of the Inside the Birds Podcast during 'Football at Four' on The Sports Bash on Friday.

Essentially Pederson was coaching with the now in mind, while Lurie's vision is that its time for the team to rebuild. Lurie and Pederson simply didn't see eye-to-eye on what the direction of the franchise should be moving forward. So even with two years remaining on Pederson's contract, the two-sides parted ways and Pederson was in essence fired.

"I would say the difference in vision is much more about where we're at as a franchise," Lurie said during his press conference last Monday. As I said, we're at that point. It's a transition point and we've got to get younger and we have to have a lot more volume of draft picks and we have to accumulate as much talent as we possibly can that is going to work in the long run with a focus on the mid-term and the long term and not on how to maximize 2021. And it's almost not fair to Doug, because his vision has to be: what can I do to fix this right away and what coaches can I have that can help me get to a smoother 2021?

My vision is much more: how can we get back to the success we've had and what we're used to in the next two, three, four, five years? It's not a difference of opinion. It's a difference of where we're both at, and I really feel it was in both of our interests to proceed on our own sort of paths that way."

When you look at this whole situation, its a dramatic fall.

Pederson went from Super Bowl winning coach, along with three straight playoff appearances, to out of a job three seasons later, making this decision even more surprising.

"Lurie did not want to fire Doug," Caplan firmly stated.

As Caplan explained, with the two sides unable to agree on the direction of the team, leaving Lurie no choice but to move on from his only coach to produce a Lombardi Trophy for his franchise.

In the end Pederson wasn't fired because he did a bad job, he got fired because he couldn't get on the same page as the owner.

"Very few people probably after success deserve to lose their job," admitted Lurie. This is much more about the evaluation of whether the Eagles moving forward, our best option is to have a new coach and that's really, really what it's about. It's not about: did Doug deserve to be let go? No, he did not deserve to be let go. That's not where I'm coming from and that's not the bar in the evaluation process."