At the Eagles’ year-end press conference on Wednesday, head coach Doug Pederson made it seem like offensive coordinator Mike Groh and WRs coach Carson Walch were safe, while Jim Schwartz’s job was in question.
Flip that.
The very next day, the Eagles fired Groh and Walch. And in his statement released by the team, Pederson finally gave Schwartz a vote of confidence.
I apologize for any confusion that I created during yesterday’s press conference, including my comments on Coach Schwartz, who has done a great job as our defensive coordinator. It was my intent to not comment on any of my staff during the ongoing evaluations, because I wanted to be able to go through the process and communicate any decision directly with the individuals. I did a poor job of explaining that the first time I was asked. I will continue to evaluate everything, and consider all possibilities to improve our football team.
Basically, as I understand it, Pederson simply misspoke and flubbed the press conference.
He wanted to say — and planned on saying — that he was evaluating all the coaching positions but messed up when he was specifically asked about Groh and Walch. So when he was asked about Schwartz and he dropped the line about evaluating everything, he thought it was the second time he mentioned that. It was not; it was the first time and it gave the impression that Schwartz was on shaky ground. That’s not the case.
In fact, you can count on Schwartz returning as defensive coordinator in 2020 if he doesn’t get hired as the Browns’ head coach, something that is apparently very possible.
I have already written that losing Schwartz would be a bigger loss than some fans think. Despite his flaws, Schwartz’s unit has been seventh in scoring defense in the last few years without many great players.
Pederson seems to agree about Schwartz. It just took him two tries to say it.
NFL
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