Ah yes, it comes the time of year where we’re reminded that Doug Pederson… may be flying blind into a cloud and just pressing buttons.

You may recall that he reversed course from the Chip Kelly era last year and re-introduced tackling into Eagles training camp, a staple of the Andy Reid years. After several consecutive days of hitting, and the more educated folks yelling things like “YOU DON’T NEED TO DO THIS, SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET HURT,” someone got hurt. Jordan Matthews, to be specific. Pederson then changed his mind and stopped tackling in practice. Matthews bounced back and had a fine season, but the hit laid on his knee by Jalen Mills has had a lingering effect which has led to Matthews missing much of spring practice time this year.

So, in this world of sports science, data and pragmatism, has Pederson reversed his course reversal once reversed? He has not. Tackling it is!

From Philly.com:

Doug Pederson’s second training camp with the Eagles will begin Monday, and the physical camp will include three days of live tackling periods.

Pederson scaled back the contact last season after receiver Jordan Matthews suffered a knee injury. He still thinks it’s important to have tackling periods even though it’s becoming less common in the NFL.

“Injuries are a part of the game, and it’s unfortunate,” Pederson said. “But I feel like it’s important, too, that the guys hit. It’s a physical game, and it’s hard sometimes just to show up on game day and just put the pads on and go hit if you haven’t at least prepped them for it. Obviously, you’ve got to be smarter in the regular season, which obviously nothing is live in the regular season. But three live days, I think, is plenty.”

Two of the days with live tackling will take place before the preseason opener against Green Bay. One comes in the week between the Green Bay and Buffalo games.

“It gets them into that physical mentality that you want, especially early in training camp,” Pederson said.

If only they had a way to measure physical mentality, then the sports scientists would really be onto something.