Where Does Doug Pederson Rank Amongst the Greatest Coaches in Eagles History?

Just a few days have passed since the Eagles made it official that Doug Pederson was not coming back as Eagles head coach this season. Not even three years have passed since Super Bowl LII where Pederson earned his spot in Philadelphia lore forever, with fans thinking it would be the first of many iconic Doug moments. Barely a year has passed since he rallied the Birds to the playoffs and now what was supposed to become the greatest era in franchise history is over in a flash.

That is how bad the Eagles season has been in 2020, in which the reputations of the coaches and executives who constructed the 2017 are now completely destroyed, and Pederson got the short end of the stick. With the Pederson Era abruptly over, where does his overall body of work as a head coach rank in Eagles history? He has the biggest victory out of all of them, but is that really enough to put him at the top knowing how ugly it’s ended now? Here is a list of the Top 10 head coaches in Eagles history.

 

10. Rich Kotite

Putting Rich Kotite on any “Best of” lists sounds like complete lunacy. But that’s because there really haven’t been that many great head coaches in Eagles history. Kotite is best known for clashing with Jeffrey Lurie in his first season as the owner while the Birds went from 7-2 to 7-9 in 1994. However Kotite’s overall body of work in Philly is not that bad. He led them to a playoff win in 1992 which his predecessor Buddy Ryan didn’t do, and if Randall Cunningham didn’t get injured in the opening game of 1991 he might have been the first Super Bowl winning head coach in Eagles history. Crazy right?

 

 

9. Chip Kelly

Again, scraping the bottom of the barrel here. We all know about how much of a disaster the Chip Kelly Era was at the end when he took over as general manager and dismantled the team into a mess. But let’s not forget how exciting it was to watch the Eagles in 2013 where they’re revolutionary offense got them to the playoffs. And the ugly end at least began the foundation that led to the formation 2017 team. Also Chip somehow managed to get more double digit win regular seasons than Doug Pederson.

 

 

8. Ray Rhodes

The Eagles have had only one black head coach in franchise history so far, and that man is Ray Rhodes. The beginning of the Rhodes era looked promising as they reached the playoffs in each of his first two seasons and dropped 58 on the Lions in his playoff debut. Unfortunately things went downhill following those two seasons and the Rhodes Era bottomed out in 1998 with the worst season in franchise history. At least some of the key players for the early 2000s teams were drafted under Rhodes.

 

 

7. Jim Trimble

Finding a successful Eagles head coach before the Dick Vermeil Era who didn’t win a championship is very hard. Jim Trimble coached the Birds for only four seasons but still accumulated a winning record in his first three seasons. The only problem was that it wasn’t good enough to challenge the mighty Cleveland Browns led by Paul Brown and Otto Graham for a chance at the NFL title. With expectations high in 1955 the Eagles disappointed at 4-7-1 and Trimble was fired after just one bad season, somewhat similar to Doug Pederson’s firing.

 

 

6. Buddy Ryan

The legend of Buddy Ryan in Philadelphia is much bigger than his actual body of work. He’s quite frankly the most overrated coach in Eagles history and maybe in all of Philadelphia sports. He went 0-3 in playoffs despite the massive Hall of Fame talent he had on defense and an electric playmaker at quarterback in Randall Cunningham. Yet Ryan somehow still has a cult following in Philly thanks to his aggressive coaching, witty charm, and a hatred of the Cowboys. If only Dick Vermeil would have come out of retirement to coach those teams and have Buddy as the defensive coordinator.

 

 

5. Buck Shaw

Buck Shaw spent most of his coaching career as the first head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He then took over a struggling Eagles team in 1958 and in 1960 he led the team to victory in the 1960 NFL Championship Game over Vince Lombardi’s Packers. Shaw was 61 years old at the time and decided to go out on top after the title game. Little did he know that the 1960 team would loom large over Philadelphia for the next 57 years as the Eagles last championship team until 2017.

 

 

4. Greasy Neale

As of right now the only Eagles head coach in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is Earl “Greasy” Neale (Bert Bell did coach the team in the 1930s but is in Canton because he was the NFL commissioner.) Neale coached the Eagles for ten seasons and won back-to-back NFL titles in 1948-49. His 63 wins remained a franchise record until Andy Reid broke it in 2004.

 

 

3. Doug Pederson

Here he is. No matter what, Doug Pederson will always be the first Eagles head coach to win the Super Bowl. He will always be the Eagles head coach who overcame a slew of injuries to lead the Birds to the Lombardi and back to the playoffs in the two subsequent seasons. He will forever be beloved in Philly as man who out-coached Bill Belichick in the biggest win in team history. Even with that incredible peak, good enough to get a statue outside the Linc, Pederson’s fall is as remarkable as his meteoric rise. Instead of fulfilling the expectations that he would lead the team in perennial contention as Philly’s version of Sean Payton and Pete Carroll, all Doug has is his one glorious moment in the sun, hence why he’s only third on the list.

 

 

2. Dick Vermeil

Deciding whether or not Dick Vermeil or Doug Pederson should be Number 2  will take a coin flip. What Pederson has over Vermeil is taking advantage of his one opportunity to win the Super Bowl, which Vermeil did not when playing the Raiders in Super Bowl XV. Otherwise Vermeil has Doug beat in winning seasons and playoff appearances. But what ranks Vermeil’s higher is that his departure from the Eagles was due to burnout as opposed to things falling apart. After a lengthy period outside of coaching Vermeil proved his worthiness of the Hall of Fame (which he should be in) by turning the St. Louis Rams into the Greatest Show on Turf and winning the Super Bowl in 1999.

 

1. Andy Reid

Andy Reid was constantly criticized by fans and media for most of his tenure as Eagles head coach, but overall he did just about everything in Philadelphia except win the Super Bowl. While he got 14 seasons, the Eagles might have made a mistake in giving up on him in 2012 because finally got his ring with the Chiefs last year and could be on his way to a few more. His body of work for just the Eagles is still impressive with 130 wins, twice as many as the 2nd winningest coach in franchise history. Not to mention his 10 playoff wins in 19 games which is more than Doug Pederson and Dick Vermeil’s postseason wins combined.