One week ago, Eagles quarterback Josh McCown was coaching high school football.
It took about four practices with head coach Doug Pederson and his coaching staff to turn him back into an NFL quarterback.
"Doug and Mike Groh were great with me this week," McCown said Thursday night after a stellar outing against Baltimore. "(Quarterbacks coach) Press Taylor was awesome just getting me ready and sitting me down and saying, 'Hey, these are the things we are going to call. Only stuff you are comfortable with and you feel good with.' We were actually able to get into a rhythm later."
McCown was lights out on Thursday night, finishing the game 17-of-24 for 192 yards, two touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 122.2. Yes it was the preseason, but McCown looked like he had been running the Eagles' offense for years as he moved the team up-and-down in the field on two-straight touchdown drives in the second half.
"For (McCown), it was all about the game plan. We didn't give him the whole playbook, but just wanted him to be comfortable with a few plays," Pederson said. "My plan all along was to let him go two plus quarters in this football game and kind of let him get his feet back into the game, and he did a nice job"
McCown, an 18-year veteran, certainly deserves credit. The longer Pederson is on the sideline in Philadelphia, however, the more obvious it becomes that he just might be able to get the job done with anyone not-named Cody Kessler under center.
Since taking over for the Eagles in 2016, Pederson has seen his personnel on offense change almost weekly and often dramatically. He has had to switch quarterbacks frequently, rebuild his offensive line, change his offense and teach new players his system all on the fly. Despite those changes, the Eagles' offense has rarely missed a beat, save for a mid-season slump last season with a recovering Carson Wentz at quarterback.
Pederson's ability to simply coach has been on full display at the Eagles' quarterback position. Prior to his wrist injury, Pederson had Nate Sudfeld looking more than ready to step in if needed. The results with McCown on Thursday night were obvious. The job he has done with rookie Clayton Thorson is almost as impressive. Thorson looked lost at the beginning of camp, hesitant to even throw the ball beyond five-yards at times. Over the last week, however, no player in camp has improved more than Thorson, who went from 2-of-9 with an interception in his preseason debut to 16-of-26 for 175 yards and one touchdown (with an interception as well) the following week.
Part of the reason Pederson has been able to keep the offense going with so many changes in personnel is his ability to know exactly which plays and situation his players can succeed in. A perfect example on Thursday night was the third-quarter touchdown to receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, a play Pederson seemed to pull off at the last second with a rookie quarterback and a brand-new quarterback.
"The first (touchdown) to J.J. was man coverage and we got the look we wanted," McCown said. "Doug did a great job of adding that tag on the end of the call, and it was what we were looking for. J.J. did a great job of winning, and I just put it to the back of the end zone."
The Eagles are hoping that they won't have to see Pederson coach another game with McCown under center. They have made a $128 million bet on what Pederson can do with 16-games of a healthy Wentz, who seems to have made an effort in training camp to improvise less and stay in the pocket more.
If they don't get 16-games out of Wentz this season, however, one thing was very clear on Thursday night.
As long as they have a quarterback that is willing to sit back and simply run his offense, the Eagles are always going to be a playoff-caliber team with Pederson on the sideline -- the kind of confidence only a handful of teams can have in their head coach.
You can follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
