Eagles reportedly had interest in Josh McCown as coach, maybe coordinator

Share

Josh McCown clearly made a great impression during his one year as the Eagles’ backup quarterback. He made such a great impression the Eagles were reportedly interested in keeping him as a coach. 

During his exit interview earlier this month, the Eagles brought up the topic of a coaching position, “possibly as offensive coordinator,” according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. McCown even met with owner Jeff Lurie, which is rare for player exit interviews.

According to the report, McCown told the Eagles he wasn’t ready to announce his second retirement. 

This is interesting. And the timing of it is interesting. Because if McCown’s exit interview came at the same time as everyone else’s, Mike Groh had not yet been fired and Doug Pederson yet hadn’t even given Groh that strange vote of confidence. 

Anyway, it’s probably not that surprising that the Eagles would be interested in McCown on their coaching staff. Everyone seemed to like him, he’s a smart guy with a great understanding of the game and he was a really positive influence on Carson Wentz. 

Just listen to what Pederson said about McCown in his year-end interview with reporters: 

First of all, I appreciate everything that Josh McCown did and brought to this team and this organization. His mentoring with Carson [Wentz] was second-to-none. Sometimes you have relationships where the coach-to-player relationship is different than the player-to-player relationship, and I think he and Carson had a tremendous relationship all season and it really helped [Carson] perform at a high level.

We’ve talked about this coming offensive coordinator hire a ton over the last two weeks. And one main theme we keep coming back to is that whoever takes the job is probably going to be a QB guy. The Eagles have their franchise quarterback (and $100 million quarterback) entering what should be the prime of his career. They need to maximize his potential. 

And if hiring a 40-year-old with no NFL coaching experience as their offensive coordinator is what gets it done, so be it. 

If McCown wants to get into coaching, he’ll have a job somewhere. The Jets were also very impressed last year with his tutelage of Sam Darnold. And it seems like McCown does have an interest in coaching. This past season, he was flying back to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday nights to coach the quarterbacks, his son included, for Myers Park High School. 

The jump from Myers Park High School quarterbacks coach to Eagles offensive coordinator might seem like a huge jump — OK, it is — but if anyone could handle it, it would probably be McCown. 

But the Eagles have other options too. Press Taylor is still on staff as the quarterbacks coach. And if the Eagles wanted, they could promote Taylor to their offensive coordinator position while hiring McCown as their quarterbacks coach. That way they’d have him on staff but he wouldn’t have such an important position. 

It seems like eventually McCown will be coaching in the NFL. The question is just if that comes this year and with the Eagles. 

More on the Eagles

Contact Us