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Troy Aikman said he contacted Doug Pederson shortly after hearing the news that Pederson had been fired on Monday.
Although Aikman admitted that he had no direct knowledge of what was said during the meeting between Pederson and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, he does have a theory as to why Pederson broke down. seen showing the door.
Aikman, on the Michael Irvin podcast on PodcastOne, said he thinks it all depends on the quarterback position.
“What I understood was a difference of opinion on how they were going to advance to quarterback,” Aikman said. “I felt that here Jeffrey Lurie, the owner, paid Carson Wentz a lot of money and they are hooked with him, they can’t get out of this contract right away. And yet I think Doug Pederson felt that Jalen Hurts was probably the quarterback going forward, and how does that sum up?
“Without having any understanding of what happened in that meeting, I think they said, well, there is a difference of opinion as to how they are going to go ahead and correct last season. I think it all depends on how they’re going to handle Carson Wentz. And that’s why Doug Pederson is now looking for a job.
Prior to Pederson’s dismissal, we heard reports of the deteriorating relationship between the head coach and the quarterback. Pederson and Wentz had previously called their relationship a marriage and it looked like they were heading for a divorce.
An ESPN report said the relationship between Pederson and Wentz was irreparable, giving the impression that either Pederson or Wentz would stick around beyond 2020.
Of course, during his lengthy press conference on Monday, Lurie said the decision to fire Pederson was much more complex than that. He said he had “many, many variables” and “he’s not based on a particular quarterback or any particular job group.”
“I’m looking more at the picture as a whole,” Lurie said. “It’s not about a specific player or a particular group, and that is true for the future.”
Ultimately, Lurie said the decision was made due to a difference of opinion related to the team’s overall vision and the offense ahead. It seemed like Pederson wanted to maximize the window in the short term and Lurie thinks the Eagles are facing a rebuilding or retooling phase, whatever you want to call it.
Pederson initially decided to bench Wentz in the second half of the Green Bay game on December 6. Hurts played well enough to win the next start, then played well enough to start the last four games of the 2020 season. Wentz in 12 games in 2020 was horrible. Of course, the whole offense was messy, but he regressed to the point of being one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL.
Aikman pointed out in the podcast that a franchise quarterback is supposed to help teams overcome their inefficiencies, and Wentz made their problems worse in 2020.
“It will be a project for whoever becomes the head coach,” said Aikman. “They’re going to have to build him up to see if they can get him back to where he’s confident again and he can come out and play at a high level.”
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