Doug Pederson is considering taking a year off from coaching, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler citing unnamed sources.
The 52-year-old Pederson, fired on Monday, has not yet been officially linked to any of the other six head coaching openings around the league, although it's been widely assumed the Jets - with general manager Joe Douglas - would pursue him
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“He might get intrigued by one of the (head coaching) openings but, as the source said, it's been a loooong year for Pederson,” Fowler tweeted.
Pederson missed 10 days of training camp after contracting COVID and spoke last month about how difficult the year was for him limited face-to-face contact with his players.
The Eagles went 4-11-1 this year in Pederson’s fifth season, and he finished his Eagles career with a 42-37-1 record.
Pederson has coached since 2005 and has coached in the NFL since 2009. He played from 1991 through 2004, so he’s been involved in the game on some level for 30 years. More if you go back to his college playing career in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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It’s not unusual for coaches to take a year off to recharge. The daily grind is exhausting, especially for coaches whose teams are often in the playoffs, which extends the season into January - and in Pederson’s case, into February in 2017.
Some coaches take more than a year off. Dick Vermeil took 14 years off between leaving the Eagles after the 1982 season and taking over the Rams in 1997. Jon Gruden took nine years off between coaching the Buccaneers and Raiders. Current Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy took last year off after getting fired by the Packers.
The last four Eagles head coaches have been immediately hired as a head coach by another NFL team.
The last Eagles head coach who didn’t immediately get a head coaching job after leaving the Eagles was Buddy Ryan, who was fired after the 1990 season and took two years off before becoming defensive coordinator of the Oilers in 1993. He eventually became head coach of the Cards in 1994.