Doug Pederson is following the well-worn path from coaching to broadcasting, but his first-ever TV gig might be a bit of a head scratcher.
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The former Eagles head coach and Super Bowl LII champ is joining CBS this season to call 10 college football games on CBS Sports Network, beginning with Maryland vs. UConn on Sept. 12.
Outside of playing quarterback at Northeast Louisiana University, Pederson has no direct connection to the college football world. But as he made clear to CBS, his ultimate goal isn’t to have a second career as a college football analyst.
“My goal, my passion, is to get back to the NFL,” Pederson said. “But when it’s all said and done, this is a great opportunity to get my feet wet with the broadcasting side, get some really good coaching and insight [on] how it all kind of works.”
CBS certainly has plenty of NFL games, so Pederson could end up as an NFL analyst or land a role on a studio show like The NFL Today. But he could also see himself returning to the sidelines following head coaching stints with the Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars, where he spent three years before being fired following the 2024 season.
“I’m not closing the door to coaching,” Pederson said, “But this keeps me involved and sharp and connected to the game.”
He wouldn’t be the first to use broadcasting to land a coaching job. In 2022, former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton spent a season as a Fox analyst before landing a job with the Denver Broncos. Closer to home, Joe Girardi turned a role with the MLB Network into a short-lived job as the manager of the Phillies. And former Eagles quarterback Michael Vick used broadcasting as a path to becoming the head football coach at Norfolk State.
For now, Pederson’s focus is on broadcasting. A month before the start of the college football season, Pederson’s doesn’t know who his play-by-play partner will be or if it’ll be the same person each week. He does know his schedule, which includes North Dakota State, Kennesaw State, and three UConn games. About the closest he’ll get to Philly is calling a University of Delaware game in Newark, Del.
While this will be Pederson’s first time broadcasting games, he did travel to Los Angeles to audition with Fox, where he called a mock game alongside veteran play-by-play announcer Chris Myers. He’s also sought advice from a host of broadcasters ranging from Kirk Herbstreit to Greg McElroy — and even longtime ESPN veteran Chris Berman.
“I understand football and how it works, and being able to describe it is a different thing,” Pederson said. “So it’s going to be a learning experience.”
After coaching high school football for four years, Pederson was hired as the Eagles offensive quality control coach in 2009 by then-head coach Andy Reid. He followed Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, where he served as the team’s offensive coordinator for three seasons before being hired as the Eagles head coach in 2016.
In Philly, Pederson amassed a 42-37-1 record in five seasons, but his tenure includes the Birds’ improbable championship run during the 2017 season behind backup quarterback Nick Foles. A statue celebrating Pederson and Foles for the “Philly Special” play stands outside the Linc, though it was temporarily removed during the World Cup last season.
“They could’ve just put a soccer ball over the top if it,” Pederson joked.
Jeffrey Lurie has owned the Philadelphia Eagles, which he purchased in 1994, longer than his son, Julian, has been alive. But in recent years, the younger Lurie, heir to the franchise and now 31, has assumed a more pervasive and influential role in the organization. While the Eagles have made no secret about Julian’s increased involvement with the team, specifics about his role have been scant. In recent months, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane spoke to nearly two dozen sources on and off the record to gain a better understanding of not just who Julian Lurie is and what he does, but — most important of all — whether he’ll be ready to assume the reins as Eagles chairman and CEO, whenever the time comes. Jeff shares the biggest takeaways from his reporting with Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski in this companion episode to Jeff’s feature article about the Eagles’ succession plan. Listen here.
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