The reality is that nobody knows. There’s no way to predict whether a head coach is going to have success. There’s no template. No roadmap for this stuff.
Previous head coaching experience? Offensive or defensive? Age? None of it seems to matter.
Nobody ever heard of Andy Reid when the Eagles hired him in 1999. He had never even been a coordinator. And he’s on his way to the Hall of Fame.
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Chip Kelly was as hot a candidate as you could imagine, one of the winningest coaches in college football, and he didn’t even make it through his third year.
So as we sift through the tweets about the Eagles hiring Nick Sirianni — which have run about 80 percent negative — we thought it would be fun to take a look back five years to what Twitter looked like in January of 2016, when Doug Pederson was hired.
The intent of this isn't to embarrass anybody, so I’m not going to include the full name of the people that tweeted this stuff, just part of their Twitter handle.
But these tweets do serve as a good reminder that you never know. None of us do.
NFL
Because two years after these tweets, Pederson was riding up Broad Street on a float catching beers one-handed as a city celebrated a championship.
PDX: “Pederson is Philly's Tomsula. Doomed to fail.”
This was a reference to Jim Tomsula, who was named 49ers head coach after the 2014 season but lasted just one year, going 5-11 before getting fired a few days before the Eagles hired Pederson. Doug did better than Tomsula.
Christian H: “I am praying that Doug Pederson pulls a Frank Gore.”
Christian was referring to the future Hall of Fame running back, who reportedly agreed to a contract with the Eagles to replace LeSean McCoy, who Chip Kelly had traded to the Bills. But Gore changed his mind and signed instead with the Colts.
Charlie W: “I’m rooting for the Chiefs to win it all. That way maybe time will strike the stupid out of Lurie selecting Pederson.”
As it turned out, the Chiefs in 2015 lost to the Patriots in the conference semifinal round in Foxboro, and two days later Pederson was officially named head coach of the Eagles.
Tom P: It was a poor decision to fire Chip. How are Shurmur or Pederson better options?
Shurmur was never going to get the job, but Chip went 2-14 in his one year as an NFL head coach with the 49ers before he got fired there. He’s 10-21 at UCLA.
Jambox: “They can't seriously make him the next Eagles head coach.”
They seriously did. And he seriously won a Super Bowl.
Logical: “Their hiring of Pederson (was) bungled and inept.”
Logical didn’t like the fact that the Eagles seemed to have made up their minds to hire Pederson before really getting into an exhaustive coaching search.
Marc R: “Hard to get excited about Pederson if he's really picking these guys for his staff. They're from bad teams.”
Marc didn’t like Pederson’s choices of Frank Reich and Jim Schwartz as his coordinators.
Bomber70: “Whats wrong with throwing $ at Josh McDaniels?”
Bomber had Josh McDaniels on the Eagles’ radar five years before he was!
John M: “Doug Pederson is a nice guy, however he is not coaching material.”
A lot of people felt that way five years ago. Pederson wasn't the most polished public speaker, and a lot of people were disappointed in his introductory press conference. But coaching and public speaking are two completely different things.
shard: @RoobCSN: “Is it too soon for the fire Doug Pederson Facebook page?”
Yep. Too soon.
Brandon J: “It seems Lurie was quick to fire Chip w/o any plan in place...can't see them selling Pederson to fans.”
It was really the exact opposite. Pederson was the Eagles' top candidate all along.
This is not to say all the tweets about Pederson were negative after he was hired.
There were a handful of positive ones, including one that was remarkably prescient.
Guy: “I actually feel relieved it's Pederson. He's not a splashy name but where did that get us?”
Pederson really was the anti-Chip. None of the hype, none of the flash, but he wound up a heck of a lot more successful.
Adam M: “I don't know if Pederson can coach, but I've yet to hear real criticism from someone who knows him.”
That’s a great point. It turned out Pederson really was qualified for the job, even though it was easy to think he wasn’t. A bunch of people shouting “THIS HIRING SUCKS” isn’t a valid criticism of a candidate.
FLYBOY: I think I'm in the minority but I'm excited about coach Pederson. I also say the Eagles should try to get Nick Foles back if possible.”
Dude nailed it.
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