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Some jumped to the conclusion that the Jets would be interested
in former Eagles coach Doug Pederson for their head coaching job since he worked with their GM Joe Douglas in Philly from 2016-19.
But this has to be considered a major long shot for many reasons, including that he didn’t do a very good this past season.
Another is was just accused of tanking a game in Week 17 by replacing QB Jalen Hurts with Nate Sudfeld in the fourth quarter in a 3- point game. The Eagles’ pass protection was poor, so why would you replace a mobile QB with a pocket passer?
Also, Pederson elected to not go for a chip-shot field late in the third quarter which would have tied the game, and the Eagles ended up turning the ball over on downs.
It’s well-documented Jets owner Christopher Johnson and GM Joe Douglas were against tanking down the stretch to secure the first pick in the draft and Trevor Lawrence, must to the dismay of many fans. The Jets won a couple of games (though it only took one), blowing their shot at Lawrence.
“In this building, we play to win. I wouldn’t want anybody in this building who doesn’t want to win every damn game and the will to win is the heartbeat of the players that will take us back to the playoffs,” said Johnson said. “You don’t want people, you don’t want anybody in this building, who wants to lose. I think in the long run people are going to be happy that we always want to do our best.”
“There was no one on this team, no one in this organization that wanted to go 0-16 and have that scarlet letter on their resume for the rest of their career, so my hat’s off to the way that they stuck together and battled,” said Douglas.
So if the Jets are dead-set against tanking, why would they hire a coach who was just accused of tanking a game?
And what happened in the loss to the WFT has damaged Pederson’s reputation. Perhaps he got nudged into doing it by people like Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman, but the bottom line he was the coach of that game, and he will be the fall guy.
When he was fired on Monday – it’s unclear if what happened in Week 17 was a factor.
I will tell you one thing that definitely contributed to Pederson’s fall, and that was the departure of Douglas from the Eagles’ personnel department in June, 2019. Their personnel decisions with Douglas out the mix have been dubious. Roseman leaned on Douglas quite a bit, and roster has slipped the last couple of years.
Douglas was a big help in putting together that team that won the Super Bowl on February 4, 2018.
Howie definitely misses Big Joe.
But one thing is pretty clear – Pederson to the Jets makes no sense. The optic would be terrible and a very difficult sell to the season-ticket holders.
This isn’t going to happen.
However, one thing that could happen is 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh becoming the Jets’ coach. He is the first person to get a second interview and is flying in today.
I hear great things about Saleh from Tim Ryan, the 49ers’ radio analyst, who I used to work with at SiriusXM NFL Radio. He thinks Saleh is an excellent coach. The 49ers’ defense, suffered a ton of injuries this year, but continued to play well in most games. It was a unit with a great collective motor and level of toughness.
January 12, 2020
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