TRUTH: Doug vs McVay Isn’t Close

Earlier this week Sean Wagner of CBS sports put out his list of the top ten coaches in the NFL, and people are mad. Tons of Eagles fans came at Wagner for having Doug Pederson at nine. I think it’s pretty clear that Doug should have been higher, but what most people were upset at was how high Sean McVay was ranked, and that he was above Doug.

 

Normally I’m not one to argue a coaching list, there’s so many things that go into coaching in the NFL that fans don’t know about. There’s a clear group of elite coaches in the league and if you have all those guys in your list, the order for the most part doesn’t matter to me. Evaluating the importance of how much a coach is liked and respected in the locker room versus his overall record or decision making or ingenuity is really tough to do. As long as your list has the elite coaches in a somewhat fair and decent order I’ll look at it as a good list for the most part.

 

This one however doesn’t fit that mold. It’s a clickbait list. McVay was the hot new name with tons of hype a few years ago. People were enamored by the videos that came out of McVay remembering the exact outcome of every play when asked, “Week 12 against the Saints, 4:29 left in the 2nd quarter, 2nd and 7, and McVay responds, Josh Reynolds touchdown. There were people out there crowning him the greatest offensive mind in football already. Not to discredit Sean McVay, who is an absolute genius and has forgotten more about football than any of us will ever know, but the Rams have been a disappointment, especially in big moments. McVay’s offensive creativity led the Rams to three points in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. The previous year Doug Pederson’s offense put up 41 points against Belichick and the Pats.

Looking at each coach’s biggest pressure filled moment there’s a glaring difference. In the 2019 NFC Championship game against the Saints, the Rams had a 4th and inches down three with five minutes to go in the 4th quarter. McVay opted to go with the field goal to tie the game. Any analytically minded person in the league would tell you that was a mistake. But thinking about the scenario, giving Drew Brees the ball in a tie game in the Superdome with a Super Bowl appearance on the line is crazy. Brees did what everybody expected and led the Saints down into field goal range. The infamous missed pass interference call on 3rd down forced the Saints to kick a field goal with 1:43 left. If the call was made the Rams don’t get the ball back and Zuerlein doesn’t get to bail them out and force overtime. It then took a rare Brees interception where his arm was hit and another long Zuerlein field goal to send the Rams to the Super Bowl. If everything didn’t go perfect for the Rams at the end of the game we’re talking more about how Sean McVay shriveled up and coached scared in his biggest moment. On the other hand we all know how Doug handled his biggest moment, going toe to toe with arguably the best to ever do it in the Super Bowl. Instead of playing it safe and taking three points, Doug called for a trick play before halftime that is now one of the greatest plays in NFL history.

In their biggest moments, McVay coached scared while Doug was aggressive. Against the same team in back to back Super Bowls Doug was able to out coach Bill Belichick while McVay’s offense couldn’t score a touchdown. In their two meetings Doug is 2-0, both on the road and one being as a 13 point dog. In those two games, Carson Wentz went down for the season and the Eagles were in a must win game that nobody thought they could win with a backup. Doug outcoached McVay in both of those games.

 

After being roasted by the internet Sean Wagner came back and said he “wasn’t trying to look through the lens of one or two games” and brought up McVay having the best regular season winning percentage, .688, of anybody on the list. Yes, McVay has had great success in the regular season but when it matters most he has failed. He has a postseason record of 2-2, and could’ve been 1-3, while Doug is 4-2 in the playoffs and has a ring. Doug is one of seven coaches in NFL history to make the playoffs three times and win a Super Bowl within his first four seasons, and you have him ranked 9th amongst current coaches? Add on the fact that the Eagles playoff success was with a backup quarterback that hasn’t had much success anywhere else and all the injuries the team’s dealt with under Doug. There’s no way you can rank Doug as the 9th best head coach behind Sean McVay.

Doug has been disrespected by the media since the moment he was hired. But that’s how a lot of people in the media view Philadelphia guys. Let’s keep going to bat for Doug but remember, we all we got, we all we need. Go Birds.

By Nick Fiore | July 1, 2020