Press Pass: Doug Pederson

he'll be limited in practice, but he'll practice today. Uh. Chris Maragos and Leo McKelvin, both those guys will will practice. So you your reaction to Josh's incidental bridge, you know, obviously disappointed. Um you know it's uh, um, it's not what you want on a on a player day off to see happen. Um. He and I spoke about it privately, and and uh, um you know it's uh it's it's one of the things I talk about all the time

with players. You know, you just try to eliminate distractions and and uh, you know, take care of your business outside of the building. And uh, he understands and and uh, you know, we just gotta obviously it's out of our hands at this point. We just gotta see where it goes. Nothing changes in terms of his status on the team. Nothing changes right now until until we get it again. It's out of our hands. It's a legal matter right now,

and then we'll get more information on it. We've had a lot of these now distractions to use your work. What do you do? How do you avoid more of these? Where does it end? You know, It's that's a great question.

I mean, it's it's kind of like, uh, I it's like you're the you're the father of your house, and and you just gotta keep talking to your you know, to your tower siblings, and just keep talking to your kids and and just keep keep reiterating the importance of who you represent, what you represent, your families, the Philadelphia Eagles, and and you got to make smart choices. And it's it's all about choices and consequences in life. And and um, you know, if you make bad choices, you got to

suffer the consequences. So we'll we'll just continue to keep talking about its from the team we again until until I find out you know exactly, Um, you know, the severity of it and what's going to happen down the road. Right now, nothing, and we'll take it. We'll take it one day to time as of right now, yes, say well, I mean I would I would assume, you know, if you it's hard to speculate, but I'm sure you've seen

it in the past. I mean there could be fines, or could be suspensions, or could be you know, anything of that nature. But again, until until we gather all the information, we just don't. We just don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, I just need to. I just need to hear officially, you know, through an investigation, what took place and what happened. So TAMAS not enough. I want to. I want to just get all the I

want to. I want to see exactly what happened and maybe talk to some people and uh and and find out I mean, you know, it's it's outside of the building obviously, UM and a lot of times what these situations are out of our control. UM. And I just want to I want to get everything, get everything tightened up. Complex directly coming from here. He was here yesterday morning. He came in and watched the game film and then and then left from here, so it was some time

after he left. I said, you said, you wish these guys would make smarter decisions after some of the other incidents when they're outside of the building. And now this is, I believe in the fourth total incident. Do you feel there's a necessary situation for a meeting with the team to to talk about that again, or for players to have a meeting about that outside of the building, You know, I do. I think that. You know, it's it's part of my message to the team this morning, cause I

hadn't seen him in a couple of days. So part of the message this morning is how we handle our business. Um. I also think too that, I mean, you make poor choices in life, You're gonna make poor choices on the football field, You're gonna make you're gonna make. You know, if it's a if it's a constant thing, then eventually

you suffer the consequences. And and you know, when you're dealing with so many guys, coaches, players, office, um, trying to keep everybody on the same page as uh, when you're dealing with a lot of personalities and a lot of a lot of backgrounds. Um, you know, my job too, sometimes is is to be that father figure for some of these players and and understanding their history and and and you know where they've come from and how they

grew up. And it may not be how I grew up as as a as a child or as a as a you know, an adolescent or a team whatever. But at the same time, you know, I'm gonna wrap my arm around them and love on them and and uh, you know, try to show them the right direction by the fact he brought a gun onto the premise, and you think it's a common experience about I don't know about I'm not going to speculate that this is quite multiples.

Not so if people on the outside looking at you to say, because Doug Peterson had full control of this team, out of your spot, I would say, I would say that I do. Um. Again, I can't control what you do outside of it. Once you leave here. I don't know what you're gonna do, and I'm not responsible for you. But I can't control what you do once you leave these premises. Neither can the Philadelphia Eagles control what I

do once I leave these premises. I just know who I am as a person, and I try to relay that to the team and just let them know that, Hey, guys, you know you have the spotlight is on us in this city, in this market. The spotlight is on everything we do. And you have to be smart, you have to make right choices, you have to you have to do things differently. I mean, you just have to do them differently. And and because everything's magnified. Um. But again,

it's you know, it's it's once they leave here. Uh, that's the hardest thing to control. Well, we just keep talking about it, Just keep talking about it. We talked about the name father figure and wrapping your arms around guys and and that kind of thing. But is there another part of a discipline? Um? Do you think that maybe more discipline needs to come down if you have a number of incidents one after the next work guys

are stepping out of line. I think I think that there there there comes a time, um, you know when it uh um, when there could be could be some discipline like that. I mean, obviously this this could be a case again. And and you know, I just I just want to make sure that these guys that I'm doing right by these players, and then they're doing right by themselves. And and that we're we're handling our business

away from this building, right. Um. And if that means, you know, discipline at some point, then then then we address it at that point for you, between when you discipline players prior to whether they're officially well, you know, I gotta make sure that well, it's hard to put a put a you know, a uh, you know, a bullet point sort of you know, a checklist of what they do. But um, these are all things that I mean is it is it something that that that I condone?

Is it something that I would expect? No, it's not. I mean I would expect them. Again, it goes back to being being a man and making making the right decisions. I mean, these guys are these guys are professional athletes. They are they're still obviously they're young adults, um, learning about life, young marrieds, young kids. These are the things that they need to focus on them, that they need to see. Um. I've been through that as a player. I've seen it with other teammates, Um, you know, and

and things like that. But at the same time, UM, they need to know that that, Um, that the decisions and choices they make away from this building are gonna they're gonna affect it's gonna affect them as a player. It's gonna affect eventually the team, and I think eventually it's going to affect their future as a player in the NFL. Was part of your message. I mean, obviously Nigel's incident and this one both involved guns. It was

part of your message specifically addressing issues regarding guns. And well, and I have them. I mean I have hunting rifles and things like that. I mean, you know, and and but they're they're registered, they got permits form they just again it. You know, there there's league policies, there's a Philadelphi Eagles policy. Those are things that we visit every year. Um, and we just need to continue to revisit these things. I don't necessarily understand why they need guns, um outside

of you know, maybe sport hunting or whatever. But you know, we just continue to educate our players and and uh and try to try to curb it the best we can. In contact with you about this at all, I would expect it at some point, but at this point we haven't. We haven't heard anything asked. By the way, No, I don't have an explanation for it. I don't. I don't

know why, you know, I don't know why. To be honest with you, if these things continue to occur, if something else happens, when you feel you might have to do more, I feel like that. I feel like if it if it obviously you know, um, if it continues. Um, you know there and again there's this this thing is still an open investigation, so I don't know what's going to happen even in this case, you know, whether it

be from the league or the Eagles. But um, yeah, I mean there's there's uh, there's obviously probably more you can you can look into and do you know down the road injury, what's the trickle down? Good question, thank you. Um, well, you know Wisnewsky will we'll step in at left guard. Um, you know, we'll see where Alan is at the end of the week. If he can't go in this game, then uh, we'll bring Isaac Will activate Isaac h this week.

He's ready to go, Isaac, Yes, yes, yes, challenge trying to bounce before now, trying to get back on track and the division games that challenge this week. Yeah, you know, it's a big challenge. Obviously, the guys are very disappointed. And uh, um, you know, they hate to lose. UM, tough games like we just came through. We're kind of going through a tough little stretch even in our schedule right now. But you know, it is what it is, and we just got to maintain our focus, got to

maintain our drive and determination. You know, it's one day at a time, it's one play at a time. Um. The guys very eager to get back out on the practice field today later today, and and and sort of get the taste out of their mouth. And and it's it's no better feeling than to play another division opponent and uh, try to try to right the ship, give it three of the road and don't have a division win yet, does that put a prater importance on this one?

I think I think the emphasis is greater for sure, you know. I mean, you know, teams that want to make the postseason obviously have to handle their division. And right now we're we've we've put ourselves in a little bit of a hole. So yeah, the importance of winning this game is is um is probably a must for

us in the division. We're just saying, how much of a distraction is it to the team for you to spend your first you know, fifteen minutes today talking about a gun and how one bullets and discipline, uh worder forward? What what kind of a problem is that it's probably more of a distraction for me than than the players. Um, you know, because I'm the one having to answer and field the questions. But UM, I know, once I leave here, it's I'm on the I'm on the practice field and

and and as business as usual. So um this obviously was expected and uh um, but there's no greater feeling than getting back out on the field and getting to work is offensiable chage add bills this week. Well obviously at some weapons skill position you know um Odell Beckham and uh Shepherd and Cruise. I mean these guys are uh dynamic receivers that can be very explosive and so obviously understanding the thing is they've got a lot of

time invested. You know, Eli, they've worked with these these guys for the last few years and um, you know, it's an offense that ELI is very familiar with. So there's there's a lot of continuity there. Um. And and these games always seem to come down to to you know, either who has the ball last or who who takes

care of the football? You know, and in games like this and and uh, um you know it's always a tough battle between the Giants and Eagles and and um, I just look forward to the to the opportunity again day to day. I'm sorry, go ahead, how will you rotate your running backs? I mean you're going to continue to go with the heavy dose for Darren? Um? Yeah,

well again we'll see. But Ryan, you know we're going in Ryan, Ryan still the guy and and uh you know, we're still gotta gotta get him going and feeding him and get him, get him a few more touches. And in these games, Darren again is uh the guy that that would come in next and very situational as as we go along. And then we got to continue with Wendell and Kenyon and keep keep the you know, keep the pipeline coming because we're gonna need all four of

these guys at some point. There was a moment journey camp, but Somala was kind of the next guy up. Um that guard what changes in between that? Was it just

the injury? Um? And what have you seen out at him day to day and practice and how much competence is yeah, you know, Um, you know, we tried, you know, when when Barbarie went out to right tackle and Isaac was in there at left left guard, and then we had Wiz was kind of the backup center guard in that in that combination, and then of course the injury set him back just a little bit and and Whizz was healthy healthy, h so uh he was able to to plug right in there. Isaac has done an outstanding

job in practice even at center. He's getting some market center as well, and um, you know, this would be a great opportunity for him now to be active, to feel the the game like experience, you know, from from that standpoint. But you know, uh, Whizz as a veteran guy that's got a lot of a lot of starts under his belt, and we feel comfortable with him being the starter. Snaps were still still a problem on Sunday. Well. A lot of it too, is is how the center

reacts to certain things. Sometimes if he's going to his right, the ball tends to come to the right, or vice versa to the left, and just things we got to continue to focus on. Um, whether he's rising up at the snap, ball stays low, Carson dropping his eyes on a couple occasions and dropping actually dropping the snap. Uh you know, which is which has happened in the last

few games. And those are just things we got to you know, to continue to work through, continue to um you know, talk about in practice and execute it in practice so that they they go to a minimum and then we don't have any more costly turnovers. That way. You always seems so steady. I'm sure that's how you want to project yourself. So siph would be disappointed, Are

you also pissed about how many Deep down? Yeah, I mean you're you're obviously disappointed and dejected and and um, you know, I I don't sit in office all day and expect something to happen, you know, I pray that it doesn't happen. But um, I'm disappointed for the choices that they make. And uh, um, you know, we just we learned from and move on for a long time. What did you learn from him about dealing with stuff like this and what do you necessarily handled the same boy?

Um Again, he was very very cerebral in the way that he wanted all the information as well. Um. He wanted to find out exactly what had happened, talk to people if he could, uh and make a make a calculated decision. And again it was kind of the same same things when it's when it's outside of the building and the outside of our control. Um, it kind of gets turned over to the authorities at that point. So a lot of the same things are have stemmed from

me watching him and and learning from him. Wide receiver rotation something, any changes in the wide receiver rotation. No, Josh say to you when you spoke, how do you cope? Well, I'll just tell you this. He was. He was very dejected and very disappointed. Um, and uh, you know, very apologetic obviously, and uh said it wouldn't happen again, apologize all the time. Yes, the reports that there were conversations about wide receivers at the trade deadline and particularly Torry Smith,

what's your understanding of of that? How close conversations? Um, you know, obviously every team is looking to to maybe upgrade or bring in people that can help you. At this time, it's so early in the season. We're just at the midway point too. And uh, very comfortable with obviously the guys we have and want to continue to work with them and get them, get them ready. This week as well. That's the one guy we talked you to see. It was an all gaging conference level about it,

being flustered about the props and so you talked about it. Yeah, you know, And I excuse me, I uh, I approach it as if I need to talk to somebody individually, I'll talk to him individually, um, collectively, as a group or as an entire offense. And I felt that, you know, in in in certain circumstances, you just I address it with the whole team. I want everybody to hear my message. You know, I don't think it needs to be directed

directly at you know, one specific. I can go privately to you and we can talk, but you know, I want I want the whole offense, the whole team to hear from me how I feel. Um, and and just know that, uh you know, we need to get better. And and uh, um they understand, they know, they see it, they they hear it, they read it, watch it on TV whatever, and and obviously it bothers them as well. And uh but uh you know, UM, we just can't. We can't allow the outside influences affect what we do

inside the building. Thank you, guys,