Jim Schwartz responds to report about him trying to take over Doug Pederson’s job

The Inquirer released an interesting report on Saturday about how some Eagles players and coaches believe Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is gunning for Doug Pederson’s head coaching job.

On Tuesday, Schwartz addressed the report during his first press conference since it surfaced.

I am very comfortable with my relationship with Doug Pederson. And I know he’s comfortable in his relationship with me.

What I do here is I work extremely hard to execute the defense the way that he has outlined it for me. OK? I’m very comfortable in that. And not everybody is privy to those instructions.

So if anybody misunderstands or misinterprets any actions, just know this: Coach Pederson is aware of everything that I do in this building, outside of the building.

And maybe they’re not privy to it. I’ll give you an example. It was just a half hour ago. Coach Pederson has a rule in the cafeteria that you can’t rule tank tops or no sleeves in the cafeteria. Well, he wasn’t in the cafeteria, but I was, and there was an offensive player that had no sleeves on. And I tapped him and said ‘You gotta get out. You gotta get sleeves on.’

Now, I know as a head coach, when I served that [role], I wanted people around the building that were enforcing my rules. I did that for [Pederson]. I respect that position and I’m going to do — I’m going to execute the job the way he outlined it for me.

And I think anything else we can’t really worry about.

As a follow-up question, one reporter asked how Schwartz makes sure he doesn’t overstep his boundaries since he’s a former head coach and Pederson is less experienced in that role.

I just know the way that Doug outlined the job to me. And it had nothing to do with anything but having my personality and he embraced that. You know, look, I can be brash. Check. I can be in your face. Check. It’s the only way I know to coach defense. As long as Coach Pederson is fine with it, I’m going to continue that. And he is.

At the moment, there aren’t any obvious signs that suggest there’s division in the organization due to the Pederson-Schwartz dynamic. If the Eagles keep on winning games, the whole topic will be nothing but a faint memory.

So far, so good.