Philadelphia Eagles: Duce Staley has to step up for Doug Pederson
The Philadelphia Eagles already have the perfect interim head coach in-house.
Well, it’s official: Philadelphia Eagles‘ head coach Doug Pederson has officially tested positive for COVID-19.
I know, right? As if 2020 couldn’t get any worse, the Eagles will be without their head coach for the foreseeable future. Now, according to ESPN’s Tim McManus, Pederson is (so far) asymptomatic and reportedly in good spirits, but it’s hard to argue any team is in a better position without their head coach, save maybe the NY Jets, who are teetering on the edge of mutiny even after Jamal Adams wiggled his way out of town.
However, as strange as it is to say, the Eagles are in a better position than most to weather this sort of very-2020 inconvenience. Why? Because they already have running back-turned-assistant head coach Duce Staley in the building.
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Since initially (re)joining the Eagles organization under the Andy Reid regime back in 2011, Staley has bided his time while slowly working his way up the coach rankings, going from special teams quality controls coach to a running backs coach, to his current role as the team’s assistant head coach. Staley interviewed for the Eagles’ head coaching position in 2016 before eventually joining Pederson’s staff in his usual position, and was bypassed twice for offensive coordinator in favor of Mike Groh in 2019 and no one in particular in 2020.
Alright, technically the Eagles have Rich Scangarello and Marty Mornhinweg in place with the vague title Senior Offensive Asst, but if anything, that means Staley’s voice may actually be lower in the offensive game planning hierarchy.
But with a single positive test – two actually – suddenly everything has changed for Staley, as he will persumably take over the team full-time as they fire up training camp and get the necessary preparations in place to start the 2020 regular season on the road against Washington, without so much as a preseason game to get things ironed out.
While Staley is reportedly happy with his current role and wants nothing more than to continue to help the Eagles win, this is without a doubt the biggest opportunity of his still-young coaching career, with a chance to parlay this period – be it 10 days, two weeks, or even longer – into an eventual oppertunity elsewhere, be that with his alma mater the South Carolina Gamecocks, or a team like the New York Jets with an unpopular head coach and a friendly GM (Joe Douglas).
The ball, as they say, is very much in Duce Staley’s court, or field, since it’s football.
To be officially cleared to return to organized team activities, Doug Pederson has to test negative on two consecutive tests at least 24 hours apart after undergoing a period of isolation of at least five days. In theory, that means Pederson could be back as soon as next week, but until that actually happens, it’s comforting to know the Philadephia Eagles already have the best in-house replacement imaginable in Duce Staley who can keep his seat warm, and the team prepared in his absence.
UPDATE: According to Jeff McLane, Duce Staley will, in fact, assume head coaching duties at the NovaCare Complex in the interim.