We’re getting very close to the end of the season for the Chicago Bears, and the talk of head coaching candidates and front-office decisions has been the topic of discussion for quite a while. So once again, we’re back with our coaching carousel series. This time looking at none other, than Doug Pederson.
It will be interesting to see the Chicago Bears approach to Doug Pederson
Doug Pederson is a name that most NFL fans should be pretty familiar with. Pederson had a 10-year career as a player most of which, was spent as Brett Favre’s backup. He entered the league in 1993 originally with the Dolphins.
The following year he joined the Packers and remained there for the next several seasons. As mentioned above, Pederson was mostly a backup QB but he did get a couple of shots to play with the Eagles and Browns.
Following both of those short stints, Pederson re-signed with Green Bay where he would remain until his retirement at the end of 2004. Pederson immediately entered into coaching but to his credit, he paid his dues.
Pederson started off coaching high school ball before joining the Eagles as a quality control coach in 2009. Pederson followed Andy Reid throughout his professional coaching career but wasn’t an offensive coordinator until 2013.
In 2013 he was a member of the Kansas City Cheifs coaching staff once again, under Andy Reid’s tutelage. Around this time is when Pederson started to gain some traction en route to becoming a head coach.
He remain in Kansas City for three seasons before eventually being named the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Pederson was the Eagles head coach for five seasons, most of which was positive.
He won a Super Bowl in 2017 and even beat the Bears in the 2018 Wild Card, a game Chicago Bears fans will always remember. Pederson was fired after the 2020 season after a falling out with upper management surrounded by a QB controversy.
Final Verdict
It’s hard to say that hiring a former Super Bowl-winning head coach is the wrong thing to do but I’m not sure how I feel about Pederson as the Bears’ head coach. Some fans may be upset and consider this hire to be another Andy Reid retread but Pederson is much more accomplished than Nagy in every way.
Pederson ran an efficient offense and even had Carson Wentz playing like an MVP at one point. On the contrary, some like to credit the Eagles’ success from this time period to Frank Reich. I personally think both can be attributed.
Overall, I think Pederson would be a good hire and certainly an upgrade over Nagy. However, I feel that the organization may want to do a complete 180 on what they just did over these last four years. Let us know how you would feel with Doug Pederson as the Chicago Bears’ next head coach and other candidates you would like to see.