When the Jaguars hired Doug Pederson on Thursday, it continued a remarkable streak that has seen every Eagles head coach since the mid-1970s get another head coaching job after leaving Philly.
Pederson is the 9th consecutive head coach hired as a head coach after getting fired by the Eagles (or stepping down) and the 10th overall.
The last Eagles head coach who never worked again as an NFL head coach was Ed Khayat, who replaced Jerry Williams five games into the 1971 season and went 4-1 as an interim coach, then 2-11-1 in 1972 as a full-time coach.
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Khayat, who had played on the Eagles’ 1960 NFL Championship team, was only 37 when he got fired after the 1972 season, and he went on to coach another two decades as an assistant. He was on Raymond Berry’s staff in 1985 when the Patriots went to the Super Bowl, and he worked under Sam Wyche with the Buccaneers in the early 1990s.
But Khayat was never a head coach again – at least not in the NFL. He was named Arena League Coach of the Year after leading the Nashville Kats to a 10-4 record in 1997.
In all, there have been 10 Eagles head coaches who’ve gotten a second opportunity to be a head coach. Only two of them have ever won a playoff game and only three ever had a single winning season.
Let’s take a look at how they did:
NFL
Nick Skorich (1961-1963): Skorich took over after Buck Shaw retired following the 1960 NFL Championship season. He went 10-4 in his first year but then was fired after going 5-20-3. Skorich signed on as offensive coordinator with the Browns under Blanton Collier and was part of the 1964 NFL Championship team. When Collier stepped down after the 1970 season because of his failing health, Skorich replaced him and went 30-24-2 in four seasons, making two appearances in the divisional playoffs without a win.
Mike McCormack (1973-1975): McCormack was a Hall of Fame offensive tackle with the Browns, winning two NFL titles in the 1950s (and Skorich was one of his coaches) before embarking on a coaching career. He worked under Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi and George Allen with Washington, going 16-25-1 with the Eagles. He didn’t get another head coaching opportunity until 1980, when he replaced Colts head coach Ted Marchibroda (who would eventually become Marion Campbell’s offensive coordinator with the Eagles). McCormack lasted only two years in Baltimore, going 9-23. He went on to become GM of the Seahawks from 1982-89 and Panthers from 1993-97.
Dick Vermeil (1976-1982): Vermeil took over a team that had one winning season in the last 14 years and guided the Eagles to a 54-47 record, four straight playoff berths and a Super Bowl. He walked away after 1982 citing burnout and waited 15 years to return with the Rams. After going 9-23 in his first two years in St. Louis, the 1999 team went 13-3 and won the Super Bowl. He stepped away again for a year but then spent 2001-05 coaching the Chiefs, going 44-36 with one playoff appearance.
Marion Campbell (1983-1985): Swampy had been a Pro Bowl defensive tackle on the Eagles’ 1960 NFL Championship team. He retired after the 1961 season and worked as an assistant with various teams before being named head coach of the Falcons in 1974. He went 6-19 before getting fired halfway through the 1976 season. A year later, he became Vermeil’s defensive coordinator and when Vermeil stepped down, the Swamp Fox replaced him. He lasted three years and went 17-29-1, although it was during this period that players such as Reggie White, Randall Cunningham, Andre Waters and Wes Hopkins first joined the Eagles. After getting fired, Campbell resurfaced in 1987 back with the Falcons, where he went 11-32 in three seasons. He remains the last Eagles head coach who had previous NFL head coaching experience.
Buddy Ryan (1986-1990): After eight years with the Bears and following the Super Bowl XX win in New Orleans, Buddy replaced Campbell and went 43-35-1 in five years as head coach of the Eagles with three trips to the playoffs but no postseason wins. Buddy spent two years out of football but resurfaced as Jack Pardee’s defensive coordinator with the Oilers in 1993. That team finished the regular season with an 11-game winning streak and had the NFL’s No. 4 defense, which earned Buddy a second head coaching opportunity, this time with the Cards. But Arizona went 12-20 and he was fired after the 1995 season, ending a four-decade coaching career.
Rich Kotite (1991-1994): Kotite had been Ryan’s offensive coordinator in 1990, when the offense was ranked No. 3 in the NFL, and owner Norman Braman picked Kotite over Jeff Fisher as Ryan’s replacement. Things started out OK. Kotite’s 21-11 record in 1991 and 1992 remains the best record of any Eagles coach ever in his first two seasons. But once Ryan’s players started leaving via free agency, it all fell to pieces, and new owner Jeff Lurie fired Kotite after the 1994 team lost its last seven games to finish 7-9. But Kotite, who had spent seven years coaching under Joe Walton with the Jets, had a fan in Jets owner Leon Hess, who hired him in 1995 to replace Pete Carroll. Kotite went 4-28 in two years with the Jets, meaning he was 4-35 in the last 39 games he coached. He was fired after 1996 and never coached again.
Ray Rhodes (1995-1998): After stints as a defensive coordinator with the Packers under Mike Holmgren and the 49ers under George Seifert, Rhodes was the first head coaching hire Lurie made. The Eagles went 10-6 with a playoff win in Rhodes’ first year and then 10-6 with a wild-card loss in his second, but his last two teams went 9-22-1 and Lurie fired Rhodes after the 1998 season. The Packers hired him to replace Holmgren the same day the Eagles hired Andy Reid, and Rhodes went 8-8 in his one year as head coach of the Packers. He bounced around the league as an assistant with Washington, the Broncos, Seahawks, Texans and Browns before retiring following the 2012 season.
Andy Reid (1999-2012): Big Red, who had coached with Rhodes in Green Bay, spent 14 years with the Eagles, leading them to nine playoff berths and going 130-93-1 with a Super Bowl appearance. After getting fired following the 2012 season, he went to the Chiefs, where he’s 103-42 with seven straight playoff berths, two Super Bowl appearances and one championship. Reid ranks 5th in NFL history with 233 regular-season wins, 4th with 17 playoff appearances and tied with Don Shula for 3rd with 19 postseason wins.
Chip Kelly (2013-2015): Like Kotite and Rhodes, Kelly won 10 games in each of his first two seasons as head coach, but he didn’t even make it to the end of his third. Lurie fired him with a game left in the 2015 season. The 49ers hired him immediately, but he was fired after a 2-14 season in San Francisco and has been at UCLA since 2018. The first Eagles head coach since Ryan who never won a playoff game.
Doug Pederson (2016-2020): Pederson went 42-37-1 in five years with the Eagles with three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title four years ago today. He’s the first Eagles head coach who didn’t get his next head coaching job immediately since Ryan. If he ever leads the Jaguars to a postseason win, he would join Vermeil and Reid as only the third former Eagles coach to win a playoff game with another team.
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