1,000 words may not be enough for this picture.
Former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was at Indianapolis Colts practice Friday, seen with quarterback Carson Wentz and head coach Frank Reich:
When the Eagles drafted Wentz with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, he joined an organization where Pederson was entering his first year as an NFL head coach, with Reich slated to be his offensive coordinator. You could do an entire 30 for 30 on what's happened in the five-plus years since then.
In some senses, Reich is indebted to Pederson. We learned this offseason that after the Eagles went 7-9 in 2016, management wanted to move on from Reich as the offensive coordinator. Both Rob Maaddi of The Associated Press and Brandon Lee Gowton of Bleeding Green Nation say that Pederson came to Reich's defense, and ultimately he was retained as offensive coordinator in 2017. The Eagles went 13-3 in 2017 and won the franchise's first Super Bowl title, setting Reich up to land the head coaching job with the Colts once Josh McDaniels reneged on his decision to leave the New England Patriots to take the position.
The rapport between Pederson and Wentz is seemingly much more icy. ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported in January that the relationship between the two was "fractured beyond repair," with Wentz likely to request a trade in the offseason. As it turned out, Wentz was traded and the Eagles ultimately fired Pederson. It's unclear if fences have been mended between the two since, though Pederson has always insisted publicly that the two still had a good relationship.
This is the second time that Pederson has popped up at an NFL camp this summer. Not currently on an NFL staff, Pederson appeared at Bears training camp earlier this year, as he had previously worked on Andy Reid's staff in Kansas City with Chicago head coach Matt Nagy:
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