Doug Pederson Is Already Displaying a Remarkable Incomprehension of In-Game Management

As part of an excellent, lengthy piece by Jeff McLane in which he explores Doug Pederson’s lack of… well, just about any coaching record, McLane points out that Crusher Doug plans to impart one of Andy Reid’s harebrained game management techniques, and, likely without realizing it, is passing it off as part of the rules:

Pederson has said he has no plans to split play-calling duties with Frank Reich, even though the Eagles’ offensive coordinator has more experience. What will happen – as it did in Kansas City, per Pederson – is that he will call the play, and Reich will hear it on the headset and then relay it to Bradford.

Isn’t that too cumbersome, especially in hurry-up situations? Why not just call the play yourself?

“You’re only allowed two channels on your headset, so if you’re a head coach and you have offense, defense, quarterback, you have one that’s got to go,” Pederson said. “So you can’t go directly to the quarterback if you have offense, defense. You have to go through someone to get it, or you just turn it over to your coordinator and let him call it.”

But two former NFL coaches, who requested anonymity, said that head coaches can have all three channels, and in fact, most do. Pederson is simply following the template set by Reid, which he, in turn, took from Mike Holmgren.

There could be a number of variables for why Reid’s career has been plagued by game management problems, but the unnecessary go-between in play-calling could be the chief explanation.

This is a… a, how do you say, “A NOT GOOD!”

A quick check of the rules in fact shows nothing with regard to only two headset signals being allowed. But I care less about Pederson’s (and Reid’s and Holmgren’s) backwards thinking than I do about the fact that Pederson probably thinks this is a rule because everything he’s learned about the game comes from Reid (GASP!!). Like, if Jim were to ever quit CB and get a job elsewhere, I imagine he’d just assume that bosses everywhere pay their employees through PayPal from a Yahoo email account. It wouldn’t necessarily be his fault – it’s what he knows! – but he also shouldn’t work as the head of payroll at a large company. Meanwhile, Pederson just got the HR job… and I suspect no one will be getting paid on-time. And I can’t wait for the first game-ending 10-second runoff after the Eagles fail to scurry to the line properly because they’re out of timeouts! Gonna be fun.