Brian Dawkins Endorses Doug Pederson as Head Coach… Sort of

I’ve had some time to digest the news that Doug Pederson will be the next head coach of the Eagles. I still don’t like it, but as a true fan, I will rep for him and this team as always going forward. There is no other option. I bleed green.

Another person that has always bled Eagles’ green is Brian Dawkins. Dawkins is the definition of a true Philly guy. He busted his ass for this city each and every game, whether his team was winning or not. If there’s any reaction to the new Eagles’ hire from a former Eagle that I would want to hear from, it would definitely be his reaction.

Pederson played with Dawkins back in 1999. Here’s what Dawkins had to say about Pederson courtesy of nj.com.

“Doug was a very, very, very smart dude. He’s very smart. There was a reason why Andy Reid brought him here. We all knew it. It was to teach guys the offense. He’s been a coach, he’s been teaching for a long time. He was the one that guys leaned on in the huddle. He’d tell guys where they’d need to go and what you needed to do. He was a coach on the field. That’s the Doug that I remember. That is a great thing. To have football acumen. To be able to talk about the game and coach as a player and deliver it to someone, have them receive it themselves and then go ahead and have success with it, I think he will have success doing that.”

So that takes care of Pederson’s strengths in Dawkin’s opinion, but what about potential weaknesses? Dawkins would touch on that as well.

“The question that I have is … Does he have the temperament? Does he have the tough skin to deal with guys lighting him up and all of those things? The unknown factor of Doug is; can he be a coach that can stand in front of the Philadelphia Eagles team and grab that respect? Does he have that type of personality to do what he needs to do to get guys to buy in, get in line and stay in line? I’m talking about the accountability that has been lacking in that locker room. You can hear players saying that. That’s where Doug has a question mark.”

That’s a great, honest assessment by Dawkins on Dougie Fresh.

On Tuesday, Dawkins spoke to 97.5 The Fanatic host Mike Missanelli about one of the guys that he was surprised that the Eagles didn’t reach out to in their head coaching search. Here’s what he told Missanelli via philly.com.

“I’m a little surprised that they haven’t at least had a conversation with [Sean McDermott] to see what his plans would be going forward. He was a a young guy, and sometimes when you’re younger and have people in your locker room a little older that you, you might do a little more than you need to as far as demanding and being overly critical on some guys to set the tone of ‘you will respect me.’” Dawkins continued on. “Sean coming in right after [Johnson’s death] and had so much thrust at him right away. In my opinion he wasn’t given the keys to be the coordinator.”

You can listen to the full Missanelli-Dawkins interview here. It’s always great to hear perspective from one of greatest players in Philadelphia sports history.