Eagles Notes: Bradford, Pederson, Coaches

The Eagles introduced new head coach Doug Pederson today at an afternoon press conference, and announced during that presser that former Lions head coach Jim Schwartz will be Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator for the 2016 season. However, that was hardly the only item of interest from the session. Let’s dive in and round up some of the other highlights….

• According to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, the team started with a pool of about 25 head coaching candidates, then reduced that total to about 10 (Twitter link Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer). That list included head coaches on other teams, per Lurie, so I’d expect John Harbaugh, Tom Coughlin, and Sean Payton were among the Eagles’ names. Ultimately though, no one besides Pederson was going to be offered the job, Lurie said (Twitter link via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer).
• Pederson said today that personnel decisions will be made collaboratively, with Lurie breaking any ties. Pederson and Howie Roseman figure to be involved in those decisions, along with the club’s new head of player personnel — Lurie confirmed today that the Eagles are looking to hire someone for that position (Twitter links via McLane).
• Asked about Sam Bradford, Pederson said a decision on the free-agent-to-be hasn’t been made, but he praised the QB as one who could fit into his system (Twitter link via Berman).
• The Eagles haven’t yet decided on an offensive coordinator, Pederson said today (Twitter link via McLane). Frank Reich is reportedly the frontrunner for the job, though the new head coach said he’ll consider incumbent OC Pat Shurmur too (Twitter link via McLane). Still, it’ll be Pederson, rather than the OC, who will call the team’s offensive plays, tweets James Palmer of the NFL Network.
• Special teams coach Dave Fipp and offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland will be retained, tweets McLane. Pederson is still deliberating on the rest of the staff.