Doug Pederson Talks About Sudfeld, Peters, And Agholor

Earlier today at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was asked about the future of veteran left tackle Jason Peters, meaning did the Birds want him to play another season for them.

“Jason Peters is a valuable part of our offensive line,” Pederson responded.  …..”We’re kind of going down the same path with Darren Sproles. If these guys want an opportunity, you love both of them, and you give them an opportunity.  Jason, still has some opportunity for us. We’ll see where it goes, we’ll see how it ends up.”

That’s clearly an open door, an invitation for both Peters and Sproles to play another season for the Philadelphia Eagles.  Pederson didn’t say anything about contracts but you know that’s going to be a factor with Peters and with Sproles.  Would the Eagles ask Peters to take a paycut and would he be willing to take one?

I didn’t expect Pederson to say anything about contracts because that’s not really his problem.  That’s Howie Roseman’s problem.  It’s a very delicate situation because they don’t want to insult Peters, but they do want to have him working under a contract that’s fair to the team.  I think they should get him to sign a deal, which would compensate him based on the number of plays he plays.  If he gets hurt and misses a great deal of the plays, then that should be reflected in his contract.

Pederson definitely had a game plan when he answered questions today at the news conference. He bent over backwards to say nothing but great things about wide receiver Nelson Agholor.   Clearly that was part of the game plan.

“Love this guy,” Pederson stated. “He’s the first one in, last one out. Can’t say enough good things about Nelson Agholor and what he’s brought to the table and what he will continue to bring.

The University of Southern California product does have a great attitude and a tremendous work ethic, that is respected throughout the team.  There are many wide receivers in the league, who would have created problems on the team a year ago because of not getting targets.  Agholor just continued to work.

Pederson sounded like Agholor’s agent as he sung his praisers. There’s no question that he wants Agholor back next year because it makes sense.  Agholor has the type of team mentality that they must have on this ball club.

“I think last year, you look at the amount of guys we had, and of course we added Golden [Tate] midseason,” Pederson said. “Listen, I’m not going to stand up here and say it didn’t affect Nelson, because I think it did.”

There’s was no question that Agholor lost some targets because of Tate. Pederson sounded like he wants to make sure he gets Agholor more involved in the passing game next season.

“I love working with him and I think there’s great things ahead,” Pederson said emphatically as he finished his comments on Agholor.

The former backup quarterback turned NFL Head Coach responded to questions about backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld and let it be know that he wasn’t going to give the backup quarterback spot to the young quarterback.

“Nate’s done a great job,” Pederson said. “Nate has really put himself in position to compete for it (number two QB). We just don’t go around and give out jobs. But at the same time, we want him to compete for that spot.”

I hope we don’t have to find out whether Sudfeld can do the job or not in games that matter.  Hopefully Wentz is healthy the entire season and Sudfeld is sitting the bench for all the regular season and playoffs games.  Hopefully the only playing he does are when the Eagles are blowing a team out.