Eagles Chose "Best Guy" For Head Coach, Says ESPN Analyst Who Helped Hire Him

Former Eagles QB and current ESPN NFL analyst Ron Jaworski revealed that he served as an advisor to his old team as it searched for a new head coach. Jaworski sat in on meetings with a couple of candidates, and even got a big folder to flip through:

Jaworski was part of a committee that included owner Jeffrey Lurie, president Don Smolenski and executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman. The Eagles hired Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson on Thursday. Jaworski was thrilled with the group’s pick. From Les Bowen of Philly.com:

“We weren’t hiring a line cook at a restaurant here - we were hiring a head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles,” Jaworski said. “The interviews with Adam Gase and Ben McAdoo were eight, nine hours. They were intense . . . everybody was focused, everyone stayed the course. The goal was - this came right from Jeffrey Lurie, when we first got together (on the Saturday after Chip Kelly’s firing) - ‘I don’t care if it’s an offensive guy, a defensive guy, a special-teams guy, I want the best coach for the Philadelphia Eagles’ . . . I think we got the best guy for the Philadelphia Eagles in Doug Pederson.”

[...]

“Doug has incredible character,” Jaworski said. “I’ve known Doug back from his playing days . . . Certainly, he had a knowledge of Philadelphia.”

Kind words from Jaws. Now that he’s done helping, how will he—and former Colts GM Bill Polian, who also acted as an advisor—talk about Pederson and the Eagles next season, especially if the team struggles?

The freelancing of Jaworski and Polian isn’t an earth-shattering scandal, and it’s not like scores of people are banking on the words of a guy who recently fucked up the status of Odell Beckham’s suspension, and previously kickstarted an entire news cycle based on his opinion that Colin Kaepernick could be the best quarterback ever. Nevertheless, lending your services to a team you cover is strange. The part-time Eagles gig will provide Jaworski and Polian with the insider information that’s so valued by a media outlet like ESPN, but that’s because their employees were actually part of the team’s hiring process.

[ Philly.com]

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