While Carson Wentz's future in Philadelphia hangs in the balance, Doug Pederson says he has no interest in leaving the Eagles.
“I don’t want out of Philly,” Pederson said to Rob Maaddi of The Associated Press. “It is a great place to work.”
Though the Eagles have made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons - including winning Super Bowl LII - Pederson has seen his seat become relatively warm in 2020, at least in the court of public opinion. The Eagles got off to a 3-8-1 start, and a year after leading the team to the postseason, the aforementioned Wentz struggled so much that the Eagles had to bench him.
Paul Domowitch of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote late last month that "people both inside and outside of the organization who have told me he wouldn’t be totally unhappy if he ends up getting fired," prompting speculation that Pederson could be eyeing another job in the league. The Los Angeles Chargers, for example, appear to have a potential superstar quarterback in Justin Herbert, and the media market comes with much less scrutiny than Philadelphia.
However, since Wentz's benching, the Eagles have rebounded. Jalen Hurts, a second-round pick, has thrown for four touchdowns and rushed for 169 yards over his first two starts, injecting life into what had been a stagnant offense. The Eagles upset the New Orleans Saints in Week 14, before narrowly losing to the Arizona Cardinals this past weekend.
Hurts will start again Sunday at Dallas as the Eagles cling onto slim playoff hopes. He'll almost certainly start for the rest of the season, and given how well he's played over the past two weeks, it's hard not to imagine him opening 2021 as the team's starting quarterback. That would likely mean moving on from Wentz this offseason, despite the fact that trading or releasing him would leave the Eagles with more than $50 million in dead cap money next offseason.
Regardless of how the Wentz situation plays out, it would seem that Pederson, whose current contract runs through the 2022, plans to be in Philadelphia. Hurt's emergence likely keeps him from being in danger of losing his job this offseason, though he could still enter 2021 with a leash that's somewhat short.
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