Philadelphia Eagles: Should Doug Pederson actually give up play-calling?

Do the Philadelphia Eagles need someone else calling plays on offense?

Ever since the glory days of 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles offense hasn’t been the same. Some of that can be attributed to an aging roster and a heavy dose of untimely injuries, and some of that can be attributed to a steep decline in the offensive coaching structure. Both Frank Reich and John DeFilippo departed after the team’s Super Bowl winning season, and the effects were fairly profound.

The Eagles went from seventh in total yards in 2017, to 14th in 2018 and 2019, to 29th here in 2020. The team’s offense is the worst it’s ever looked during the Doug Pederson era, and some whispers around the league have led people to question whether Pederson is still the right man to be calling plays.

Currently ranking 22nd in the league in terms of total offense, the Chicago Bears pulled the plug on their own respective play-calling structure. Head coach Matt Nagy agreed to allow his offensive coordinator to call plays for their upcoming game against the Vikings, as he steps back into a more supervisor based role. While the Bears are still over .500 at the moment (5-4), they’ve experienced some pretty woeful quarterback production from both Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles. The switch to hand the playbook over to OC Bill Lazor should ideally re-spark the offense.

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Pederson has been asked about play-calling dating all the way back to the early stages of the 2019 season, but Nagy actually making the switch over in Chicago has led to the conversation intensifying. Plenty of people have cited Pederson’s poor coaching as a reason for Carson Wentz‘ struggles this year, and getting that situation fixed is obviously priority #1.

So this all begs the question: is handing the play-calling over to someone else really the way to fix the Philadelphia Eagles offense?

For what it’s worth, I still believe Doug Pederson is a very good head coach. While it feels like ages ago, he did in fact win a Super Bowl fairly recently, and he’s been to the playoffs each year since. He’s repeatedly found a way to get his guys to rally late in the season, and has navigated through multiple roster-crushing injuries.

With that said, his creativity the last 25 games in particular has been mind-numbingly frustrating.

Pederson has been running a very vanilla offense as of late. No WR runs, very few screens, no timing routes, zero creative run formations, nothing designed to get playmakers into space, etc. The 2020 Eagles offense is based around a lot of basic running sets, stacked with long developing passing plays predicated on receivers beating single coverage (which they very rarely do).

Look no further than the Eagles two-point conversion attempts this season to see just how simple their “best” plays have become.

In 2018 and 2019 you could make the argument that Pederson didn’t have the appropriate weapons to get *too* creative on offense (which was likely true), but in 2020 that logic falls flat. While the Eagles roster still noticeably lacks real elite talent on the offensive side of the ball, they undoubtedly have a plethora of speed and athleticism. The group of Jalen Reagor, John Hightower, Quez Watkins, and even Jason Huntley are all lightning quick, and we’ve yet to see the team even attempt to put their speed on display outside of a few “Hail Mary” deep shots.

Back in 2017, Pederson was one of the most innovative offensive play-callers in all of football. His game-plans and play designs repeatedly left defensive coordinators completely bewildered, and it helped Wentz spearhead an MVP-like season. While Frank Reich never actually called plays, having that offensive coordinator voice in Doug’s ear likely aided Pederson more than he realized.

Currently, the Eagles don’t even have a designated offensive coordinator, they have a grouping of “assistants” who all clearly have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing. This “hive mind” approach to the offensive coordinator position (something Howie Roseman vouched for) isn’t working, and it’s damaging both Pederson and Wentz.

Ultimately, I don’t think Pederson bailing on his play-calling duties is the answer longterm. Doug has proven time and time again that he can call the right plays at the right time, the main problem at the moment rests with the physical play design and structure. That’s an issue that starts Monday morning in the office, and an issue that can likely be attributed to the team’s lack of identity in the coaching staff.

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Hiring a real offensive coordinator in the offseason should be the first thing this team does, a guy who can come in and add a Frank Reich type boost to the offense. If the Eagles do that and Pederson still can’t figure out how to get the best out of his franchise QB and the young weapons around him, then we can finally agree on asking him to hang up the play-calling duties.

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