Doug Pederson on Eagles, Final Roster, Absent Players

New Eagles coach Doug Pederson recently wrapped up his first mandatory minicamp, and the 48-year-old talked to Dave Zangaro of CSNPhilly.com about the experience. The whole column is worth reading, but we pulled out some of the relevant quotes below…

• There’s still a long way to go, but Pederson is already beginning to determine which of his 90 players will ultimately make the team. “I think you have an idea in the offseason,” he said. “You obviously know what you had coming back from last year, and of course your roster makeup and chemistry changes every year. It’s a new team, regardless of the new coaching staff or not. Next year we will be a new team, as well. Yeah, you begin to kind of go, ‘OK, pencil in guys here and there,’ and try to figure that out.”
• Zangaro believes Pederson will have a particularly difficult time widdling down his group of tight ends and running backs, but the head coach already has a rough idea of how many players he’ll want for each position. “And again, as you know, once you get to the regular season and the way games are played, you want to make sure you’re covered in all areas,” he said. “But you go in having a general idea of how many you want at each spot.”
• One thing that Pederson wasn’t focused on was his previously-absent players. Sam Bradford, Fletcher Cox, and Darren Sproles all missed parts of the previous voluntary workouts, but the coach stayed focused on the players who were present. “I didn’t necessarily worry myself too much about those situations,” he said. “Again, it goes back to just the way the offseason is set up and the fact that the entire program, outside of these last four days, is a voluntary program, and I just can’t – I’ve got to worry about the guys that are here during those times, and focus on those guys…I think at the end of the day, we’re just very fortunate that everybody is here this week and getting through this offseason and getting ready for camp.”