Philadelphia Eagles head ball coach Doug Pederson is feeling good.

He’s out of quarantine and returned to NovaCare to re-assume full control of the Birds, who are set to begin the regular season one month from tomorrow against the Washington Football Team.

Doug spoke to reporters today, and here are notes from the 14-minute session:

  • the padded portion of practice begins next Monday
  • they’ll have two days of tackling to the ground
  • he says he used quarantine to stay engaged with the team while watching the practices from home
  • they installed the entire offense and defense over the past two weeks, “we’re not playing catch up,” Pederson said
  • he believes Howard Eskin looks like Tom Hanks in Castaway
  • he thinks highly of the linebackers, which he described as a “young” and “energetic” group
  • RE: Jatavis Brown, “you come to a point where you don’t have the passion and drive, which is unfortunate because he’s a great kid” (he suggested his heart wasn’t really into playing football right now)
  • Greg Ward “goes into this season, he’s in that rotation, that starting mix for us
  • they need to make sure the starters get enough reps going into the season, which might make it slightly harder to mix in some of the backups during camp, which is what Doug typically does
  • they have the Oakley mouth shields, and Doug says some of the players are going to “try them and see if they like them”

Here’s the full video for your viewing pleasure: