Despite coronavirus outbreaks, Eagles coach Doug Pederson feels ‘extremely safe’
Extremely safe. That’s how Eagles head coach Doug Pederson says he feels going to work at the NovaCare Complex despite the COVID-19 outbreak nationally and right around the block at Citizens Bank Park.
Several members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for the coronavirus in the wake of their threegame series with the Phillies. It was nasty enough that Major League Baseball postponed the Phils’ Monday night get-together with the New York Yankees.
Pederson, meanwhile, put up a brave front Monday as Eagles rookies were cleared to enter the team complex. With the veterans required to report for COVID-19 tests Tuesday, there was nothing else Pederson could say without setting off alarms.
“Obviously coming into it there might have been some skepticism about the testing and the screening that goes on,” Pederson said on a ZOOM call. “But this is very thorough. And when you’re here, when you get tested in the morning, you’ve got a screening process that you have to go through to get into the building. Wearing masks in the building everywhere we go. I feel extremely safe. This is our bubble right here at NovaCare. I can’t control everything. We can’t control everything. There probably are going to be some things that come up down the road but right now I feel extremely safe and this is a great environment for our players to succeed in.”
Pederson declined to say if any Eagles players or staff had tested positive for COVID-19, citing league directives.
For the most part, Pederson offered minimal insight into how he and his coaching staff would figure out who their best 53 players were by the end of camp. That’s partly because the training camp ramp-up, if you will, is subject to change due to COVID-19 flareups.
Right now, the Eagles are in the strength and conditioning phase. They’re slated to be in the acclimation phase Aug. 3, which includes walkthroughs but not contact. The contact in shoulder pads is scheduled for Aug. 17.
While Pederson crosses his fingers that those dates hold, he’s got to figure out how to prepare the young players the Eagles want to count on this season, a list that includes first-round receiver Jalen Reagor and linebackers Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley, among others.
“I’ve got to do maybe some more scrimmages and put our young players, the guys we need answer on in those situations,” Pederson said. “I’ve got to come up with ways of having gamelike situations in practice because we are missing the preseason games. It can definitely be done. We’ll be creative about it as a staff and we’ll eventually have the answers we need at the end of camp.
“I’ll tell you this, we had a really good offseason, as virtual as it was with the meetings. We spent some time virtually with our rookies this past week. These guys are in a really good place mentally. Now it’s about taking it to the grass, seeing what they know and then leaning on these guys as much as we can throughout training camp.”
In the short term, Pederson and the Eagles also will keep an eye on how baseball deals with the outbreak on the Marlins, who Monday were told to stay at their hotel in Philly.
Ironically former Phils catcher Jorge Alfaro, now with the Marlins, had been put on the injured list during the Phillies’ series, with explanation.
Now, per ESPN, the list of Marlins players who tested positive for COVID-19 has grown to 11. Four coaches also tested positive.
“We understand that the virus is real and we do everything we can in our powers to stay safe, protecting ourselves when we’re in our building, protecting our players,” Pederson said. “It’s unfortunate what has happened but we do have a lengthy set of protocols that we have to abide by. This is our new normal right now, working in these conditions.”