Pederson handling Eagles' many off-field issues like he's done this before

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You want drama?

There was drama.

Almost from the moment Doug Pederson took over as Eagles head coach, he’s had one headache after another, one brush fire after another, one drama after another.

It began in April, when starting quarterback Sam Bradford skipped two weeks of voluntary workouts to protest the Eagles’ trade up with the Browns.

It continued in the summer when receiver Nelson Agholor was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in South Philadelphia (no charges were filed) and linebacker Nigel Bradham was arrested for an alleged assault of a hotel employee in Miami.

There was the Bradford trade a week before the regular season. There was another Bradham arrest. There was the Lane Johnson 10-game suspension. There was a Josh Huff arrest and eventual release. There was a third-string rookie quarterback becoming the starter after missing most of training camp. There was a Pro Bowl safety gaining attention not for his play during games but his public protests before games.

And in the midst of all this, Doug Pederson lost his dad.

When you evaluate the job Pederson has done coaching the Eagles this year, it’s easy to look at specific plays and be critical: fourth downs that blew up, a desperation pass in Detroit that didn’t have to be thrown, a potential game-winning TD pass that wasn’t completed against the Giants, a field goal that should have been kicked.

But when you look at the big picture, despite all the off-field and on-field distractions, the Eagles are 5-4 and in the thick of the NFC playoff race.

Pederson had no head coaching experience before this year — other than a few years at a private high school in Louisiana — but he’s managed to keep the whole thing together under some very difficult circumstances.

“Yeah, there’s been a lot of adversity thrown our way,” Pederson said to CSNPhilly.com. “But if this is the hardest it gets and we can still be able to manage it and work through it and still be able to compete and win games like we have, it just shows the resilience of this team and the coaching staff and how well this team has bought into everything I’ve brought, what the staff has brought.

“I think a lot of people outside of the building said, ‘Hey you’re going to start a rookie quarterback? There’s probably going to be some growing pains,’ but we’re sitting here at 5-4 and could easily be 6-3 or 7-2, just a play here or there difference.”

Pederson inherited a team that went 7-9 after a 3-3 start, with the last four losses coming by 28, 31, 23 and 14 points. He inherited a defense ranked 28th in the league and an offense that was stripped of LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin.

And here are the Eagles now, undefeated at home and coming off an upset win over the Falcons that nudged them back over .500 and into the thick of the wild-card race.

Considering everything, it’s a pretty good place to be.

There’s no guidebook for rookie coaches to navigate these kind of rough waters. The suspension of their most consistent offensive lineman. The release of the NFL’s top-ranked kick returner. The arrests, the last-minute losses, a four-game losing streak, the quarterback drama.

But so far, Pederson has gotten the Eagles through all of it. 

“I lean back on previous experiences,” he said Monday. “Our last year here, back in 2012, we had some quarterback problems, some growing pains then, and worked through some things, went on a losing streak, but the thing is, that team never stopped believing, that team didn’t quit, that team didn’t point fingers, and you learn from those experiences. 

“And for me, you just rely on that. And the experiences we had in Kansas City. Last year we started 1-5, then won 10 in a row. You lean on those experiences and learn to stay the course. We have a plan, trust the plan, trust the process and stick with it.”

The toughest thing for Pederson hasn’t been shuffling personnel in the wake of the Bradford trade, Johnson’s suspension and Huff’s release.

It’s been dealing with the off-the-field incidents. As a quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator, Pederson never had to deal with these kinds of things before.

“For me, personally? It’s hard,” he said. “It’s difficult. It’s not who I am, it’s not what I believe in. 

“As a football coach, sometimes you have to manage it the best you can. You know what, once these guys leave the building, they’re adults, they’re grown men, and there’s only so much you can do. It’s like a parent when your kids leave the house. You hope they make right decisions and right choices and it’s kind of that mentality. 

“And you just keep talking to them and keep loving on them and try to find common ground with them and continue to just say, ‘Hey, let’s just stay the course, stay the course, stay the course.’

“Things are going to come up when you’re dealing this many people. There’s always going to be something that comes up. You just hope that it’s not something that totally devastates your team.”

It’s hard enough being a rookie coach trying to gain the respect of a 53-man roster that has no idea who you are.

It’s that much harder when all these non-football challenges keep arising and 53 sets of eyes are glued to you, waiting to see how you handle all of it.

Pederson said everything he’s done this year has been with that in mind. He knows one misstep could really hurt him in the locker room.

But his only philosophy through all of it has been to just be himself.

“I keep it in the back of my mind but I also want them to see who I am and be me,” he said. “I’m not going to change who I am based on the situation or circumstances. 

“But at the same time, I can’t enforce my beliefs and opinions and values on this many people. As bad as you want to sometimes. But yeah, sometimes it’s tough but I’m still going to be me. I want them to see me, and I think they respect that, and sometimes when you make tough choices they do respect that and they respond.”

Every coach has some stuff to deal with. There’s no way to measure it, but it certainly seems as if Pederson has had far more than most coaches. Certainly most rookie coaches.

For the Eagles to be 5-4, in the top 10 in the NFL in both offense and defense, the only team in the league that’s scored 20 or more points in every game, and one of only five teams that's allowed fewer than 30 in every game ... that speaks volumes. Not just of the way Pederson has coached and gotten his team prepared on the field, but how he's handled crisis after crisis off the field. 

"I think it'll make us stronger," he said. "Definitely make us a stronger group. We've got some young players who are helping us, we've got guys who are getting better, everybody has been practicing really well. I think we're definitely headed in the right direction." 

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