Eagles fire head coach Doug Pederson as Jeffrey Lurie explains decision and why he believes in Howie Roseman

Because Doug Pederson didn't share the Eagles' vision for the future with team chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie, his past of winning the first Super Bowl in team history couldn't save his job.

That's how Lurie explained it Monday when he fired Pederson, just three seasons after that Super Bowl victory.

The Eagles went 4-11-1 in 2020, and Carson Wentz regressed to one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL and reportedly felt the relationship with Pederson was "fractured beyond repair."

Pederson met with Lurie on Monday in Florida, after the two had initially met last Tuesday.

"It’s not about, did Doug deserve to be let go?" Lurie said. "No. He did not deserve to be let go. That’s not where I’m coming from, and that’s not the bar in the evaluation process.

"It’s almost not fair to Doug because his vision has to be, ‘What can I do to fix this right away? ... My vision is much more how can we get back to the success we’ve had, and what we’re used to in the next two, three, four, five years."

Lurie then added: "We’ve got to accumulate as much talent as we possibly can with a vision and a focus on the long run, and it's not about how we’re going to maximize 2021." 

In other words, Lurie's desire to "once again create a dominant football team that can maximize every aspect of its potential," is not going to happen this coming season.

But Lurie did not place the blame on general manager Howie Roseman, who is responsible for assembling the team.

Lurie said Roseman was trying to keep the Super Bowl chances intact for as long as possible, including trading away draft picks in order to acquire veterans. The Eagles had just five picks in both the 2018 and 2019 drafts, and they missed on some of those players.

"I don’t regret it because I really was hoping we could pull off another one," he said. "And I owed it to the players that brought us one to be able to lean in that direction."

But now, Lurie said the Eagles are in "a transition period." Roseman has been the Eagles' general manager since 2010, but in full power over personnel decisions since Pederson was hired in 2016.

"If there were significant ... strategic mistakes, they were made in the name of trying to hold the band together," Lurie said. 

There were reports that Pederson saw the Eagles' troubles this past season as something that would be fixed by the return of the health of several key players, particularly on the offensive line.

That, in turn, would enable Wentz to bounce back from having by far the worst season of his career. Wentz was benched for the final 4 1/2 games of the season in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts.

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Pederson said last week that his offseason goal was to fix Wentz.

The Eagles might still try to trade Wentz. If not, he will have to prove he can resurrect his career with a new coach for the first time in his career. 

But Lurie wouldn't guarantee that Wentz would be on the roster in 2021, saying that's up to Roseman, the new head coach and his staff, although he spoke glowingly about him.

"(Wentz) is just what you want," Lurie said. "It behooves us as a team with a new coach, new coaching staff to be able to really get him back to that elite progression where he was."

And he wasn't about to blame Wentz for all of the Eagles' problems. Lurie described Wentz as "elite" for his first four seasons, and that there were "multiple reasons" for his regression. 

"This decision probably has multiple, multiple variables, but it is not based on a quarterback or a particular position group," Lurie said. "Certainly you have to look at the regression of our offense. 

"I put a heavy emphasis on wanting to have an elite offense."

Pederson released his own statement Monday afternoon, thanking Lurie, Roseman and team president Don Smolenski.

"Although I am disappointed that this chapter of my career has come to an end, I am extremely proud of what we accomplished together," Pederson said. "Through all the ups and downs, one thing remained constant about our team – an unwavering commitment to battle through adversity and to achieve our goals, not as individuals, but as a collective unit."

He then called the Super Bowl "a memory we will all cherish forever."

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday that Pederson only proposed minor changes to his coaching staff.

That included promoting Press Taylor to offensive coordinator from his current position of quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator.

In addition, Pederson wanted to either promote defensive line coach Matt Burke to defensive coordinator or bring back Cory Undlin, who had been the Eagles' defensive backs coach from 2013-19 before leaving to become the Lions' defensive coordinator in 2020.

Pederson also might not have seen eye to eye with Lurie and Roseman on his coaching staff.

That was evident after the 2019 season, Pederson announced that offensive coordinator Mike Groh and wide receivers coach Carson Walch were returning, only to fire them the next day.

In all, Pederson was 42-37-1 in his five seasons. He went 4-2 in the playoffs. The Eagles made the playoffs in three straight seasons, beginning with the Super Bowl season in 2017.

But the Eagles were 9-7 in the next two playoff seasons, before bottoming out this season.

Injuries, particularly to the offensive line, played a major role as center Jason Kelce was the only perceived starter to play in all 16 games.

In addition, injuries at wide receiver also hampered the Eagles, who had to rely on three rookies – Jalen Reagor, John Hightower and Quez Watkins – through the early part of the season, along with Travis Fulgham, who was released by two teams in August.

Roseman deserves some of that blame.

He traded for DeSean Jackson in the spring of 2019 only to see Jackson play in only eight of a possible 33 games. Roseman gave veteran Alshon Jeffery a contract that prevented the Eagles from releasing him last spring, thus hampering the development of some of the younger players.

But some of Roseman's draft picks haven't exactly worked out, either, most notably wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in the second round in 2019.

Reagor, the Eagles' first-round pick last spring, missed five games to have thumb surgery, and finished with 396 yards receiving. The player taken with the pick after Reagor, wide receiver Justin Jefferson, set a rookie record with 1,400 yards receiving with the Minnesota Vikings.

The season culminated with an embarrassing attempt to lose the game when Pederson replaced Hurts with third-string quarterback Nate Sudfeld in the fourth quarter, with the Eagles losing by three points.

Lurie said that had nothing to do with the decision to fire Pederson.

Pederson's tenure, in many ways, was tied to Wentz. A few months after Pederson was hired in 2016, the Eagles traded up twice to take Wentz with the No. 2 pick in the draft. Wentz became a starter in Week 1 of his rookie season. Wentz was on his way to an MVP season in 2017 when he tore his ACL that December.

The Eagles committed to Wentz as the franchise quarterback in June 2019 with a four-year extension worth as much as $128 million.

Yet Wentz ranked among the worst quarterbacks in the NFL this season in completion percentage (57.4) and passer rating (72.8). He also tied for the lead in interceptions (15) and was sacked the most times (50).

Pederson made the switch to Hurts against Green Bay on Dec. 6. The Eagles were 1-3 under Hurts, whose completion percentage was worse than Wentz's at 52.1.

But Hurts also ran for 301 yards, providing a dual threat.

Still, Pederson insisted as the season wound down that his offseason objective was to fix Wentz. 

"I've got a ton of confidence in Carson Wentz and always have," Pederson said on Jan. 1, two days before the season finale. "Our off-season is going to be geared towards getting things fixed as quarterbacks and obviously as a team. That falls on my shoulders."

That week, Pederson said he was "fully confident" that he would return, something he reiterated again last Monday.

Then he met with Lurie and everything changed. And now the search for a new coach begins.

"We’ll think both inside the box and outside the box," Lurie said. "There will be no rush here."

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.