Philadelphia Eagles Needed Ron Jaworski’s Help To Hire Doug Pederson As Coach

The Philadelphia Eagles pulled out all the stops in their search for a new head coach. Apparently, that included turning to ex-Eagle and current ESPN analyst Ron Jaworksi, according to an interview with Philly Dot Com.

Jaworski served as a “special adviser” to the search committee of team chairman Jeffrey Lurie, team president Don Smolenski and vice president Howie Roseman as they waded through “20 to 25” qualified candidates.

“The Eagles did a tremendous job – I can’t say that any more emphatically – throughout this process, of putting together a quality list of candidates to be the head coach. We weren’t hiring a line cook at a restaurant here – we were hiring a head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The interviews with Adam Gase and Ben McAdoo were eight, nine hours. They were intense… everybody was focused, everyone stayed the course. The goal was – this came right from Jeffrey Lurie, when we first got together – ‘I don’t care if it’s an offensive guy, a defensive guy, a special-teams guy, I want the best coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.”

Ultimately, that coach turned out to be the offensive coordinator from the Kansas City Chiefs, Doug Pederson. The irony being of course, that Pederson is himself an Andy Reid disciple. Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 – 2012 and led the team to four NFC Championships and one Super Bowl appearance. Chip Kelly was brought in to replace Reid, who eventually found a home with the Chiefs three years ago. Since then the Chiefs have been to the playoffs two out of three seasons while the Eagles only managed to get into the post season the first year Kelly was brought in.

Speaking of Kelly, the former Eagles head coach has turned up with the San Francisco 49ers, as reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter earlier this week. Kelly will get a chance to show Eagles fans and more importantly, owner Jeffrey Lurie, that they were wrong to fire him before the end of the season.

49ers expected to choose between Chip Kelly and Mike Shanahan for their next HC, per league sources. Decision likely within next 24 hours.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 14, 2016

49ers announced their new HC is Chip Kelly.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 14, 2016

Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly played each other once a year back in college. Now they will square off at least twice a year in NFC West.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 14, 2016

New 49ers’ HC Chip Kelly will be signing a 4-year, $24 million deal, according to a league source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 15, 2016

As reported by Pro Football Talk however, Lurie is no doubt grateful that Chip landed on his feet so soon.

“Given that Schefter reported three years ago that Kelly had signed a five-year, $32.5 million deal to coach the Eagles, Lurie has avoided millions in buyout obligation to Kelly.”

Another impact Kelly’s hiring could have on the Eagles however, is on their quarterback situation. While it was widely assumed that Kelly would reinvigorate Colin Kapernick’s stalled career, ESPN analyst Joe Banner is presenting an alternate scenario that could take place with Philadelphia’s current quarterback Sam Bradford.

No one talking about possibility that Chip cuts Colin Kaepernick & signs Bradford. Save money & get a guy he likes. Interesting possibility

— Joe Banner (@JoeBanner13) January 14, 2016

Whatever the outcome, Philadelphia Eagles fans can finally begin embracing their new head coach. As pointed out by Bleeding Green Nation, the Eagles were rooting against the Chiefs last night because even though it has been widely circulated that Pederson is taking over for the newly fired Chip Kelly, Philadelphia wasn’t allowed to actually announce the hiring until after the Chiefs were eliminated from playoff contention.