Eagle has landed in Jet conversation
Grand proclamations of loyalty get tossed aside in college sports all the time, but it certainly seems like Iowa State’s Matt Campbell won’t be in the NFL next year. Campbell and Cyclones athletic director Jamie Pollard both announced Sunday that Campbell was returning next year.
“Can’t wait to next Fall for 60,000 fans to be back in Jack Trice Stadium cheering on Campbell,” Pollard tweeted on Sunday.
This came on the heels of a CBS report that Jets owner Christopher Johnson was “very interested” in Campbell and Joe Douglas was
“very high” on him.
Campbell was thought to be an inner-circle candidate when the Jets hired Adam Gase after the
2018 season.
But another possibility became clear during the NFL’s Sunday morning notebook dumps: Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson.
Word began leaking out of Philly through the usual channels that Pederson’s job was in grave danger.
Pederson’s job security is “not firm,” according to an ESPN report that had a Pederson-Jeffrey Lurie meeting that “did not go well.”
That sounds like the type of leak that could only be coming from the top. Pederson’s job appeared secure when he shamelessly tanked the Eagles in Week 17. But Lurie, who has been single-mindedly obsessed with offense as the Eagles owner, even forcing staff changes on Pederson last offseason, reportedly finds Pederson’s plan for the Philly offense “troubling.”
With quarterback Carson Wentz’s game dramatically regressing, the Eagles and their offense were bad this year. At 4-11-1, the Eagles will only draft four slots behind the Jets.
Jets GM Joe Douglas was the Eagles’ VP of player personnel for Pederson’s first three years with the team, making Pederson an obvious fit if he becomes available.
Pederson would be one of Douglas’ top candidates if available, according to an SNY report.
Pederson’s Eagles made the playoffs the last three years, including a legendary Super Bowl victory over the Patriots with backup QB Nick Foles.
The Eagles went 13-3 that regular season; the Jets have never in their 60-year history won 13 games in a regular season. Pederson’s teams regressed to 9-7 the next two years before crashing out of the playoffs this year.
The question for Douglas, if he ends up with the opportunity to ask it, is if the collapse of the Philly offense is on Pederson or Wentz. The Eagles showed a minor spark after Pederson benched Wentz for Jalen Hurts late in the season, but still lost to Arizona and Dallas to blow a chance at winning the NFC East. Pederson’s Eagles were once the cutting edge of the NFL, with the coach well ahead of the curve on league-wide trends like aggressive decision-making on fourth downs and two-point conversions. (For what it’s worth, the Jets still haven’t caught up.) But if Douglas thinks Pederson isn’t capable of tailoring a scheme around a young quarterback’s strengths (and hiding his weaknesses), then he should leave his old colleague 90 miles south.
The Jets are known to have interviewed Brian Daboll (Bills OC), Robert Saleh (Niners DC), Joe Brady (Panthers OC), Eric Bieniemy (Chiefs OC), Matt Eberflus (Colts DC) and longtime Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. The Brady interview came as a surprise on Saturday and would seem to fly in the face of leadership’s stated desire for a coach for the entire team. Brady’s boy genius reputation is mostly on the back of one spectacular season as the passing game coordinator at LSU. At 31, he has minimal NFL experience, with two years as a Saints assistant and one unimpressive year running the Panthers’ offense.