When the Philadelphia Eagles moved on from Andy Reid, they turned to one of his former pupils to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.
Doug Pederson’s success story, from Philadelphia to present-day Jacksonville, hasn’t taken Reid by surprise.
“Tremendous coaching job, phenomenal coaching job. I’d imagine he’s up for Coach of the Year,” Reid said Tuesday. “His performance, how he’s resurrected that program there — that’s not an easy thing to do and he’s done it as well or better than anybody.”
Reid, presiding over the AFC’s top seed, and his Kansas City Chiefs (14-3) host Pederson and the Jacksonville Jaguars (10-8) on Saturday in an AFC Divisional Playoff game.
The Jaguars are 6-1 since losing at Kansas City, 27-17, on Nov. 13. Jacksonville heated up at the right time, streaking past the Tennessee Titans to win the AFC South and rallying from a 27-point deficit to win in the wild card playoffs last week over the Los Angeles Chargers.
“They’ll be confident, and they should be. They did a great job of not falling apart and making it happen. That doesn’t happen very often in this league,” Reid said.
Reid was an assistant coach under Mike Holmgren with the Green Bay Packers in the 1990s, when Pederson was the backup quarterback to Brett Favre. In 2005, Pederson began his coaching career with the Eagles under Reid, became offensive coordinator of the Chiefs in 2013 and became Eagles head coach in 2016.
Friendly competitors, Pederson led the Eagles to a Super Bowl title two years before Reid captured his first in Kansas City.
But Reid is 18-9 against former assistant coaches.
“He’s taught me a lot about this game. It’s always fun to go against him and his teams because you know they’re going to be well coached and well disciplined,” Pederson said.
–Field Level Media