Michael Lombardi says he was wrong to call Doug Pederson the least qualified head coach in the last 30 years

Prior to the start of the 2017 NFL season, former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi said some REALLY dumb stuff about Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson.

Lombardi specifically said that Pederson “isn’t a head coach” and he “might be less qualified to coach a team than anyone I’ve ever seen in my 30-plus years in the NFL.”

And yet, here the Eagles are, hosting the NFC Championship Game after going 13-3 in the regular season.

I’d say that Lombardi was wrong.

Pederson isn’t just merely not the least qualified coach in the last 30 years. He’s actually a really good coach. He deserves to be Coach of the Year.

At least Lombardi admitted his mistake in a recent podcast on The Ringer.

I admit, I’m wrong. OK, Doug Pederson is way better than I thought he was going to be in terms of his ability to lead that team. I think Jim Schwartz is a tremendous defensive coordinator. I think he deserves a lot of credit here. But I thought [Pederson] did a really good job with Nick Foles [against the Falcons].

So all you Philly fans give me crap about give Doug Pederson his due … yeah, OK, I was wrong. He’s a better coach.

Now he’s going to have to do it again this week and we’ll see how that is, but for me, I think when you win a playoff game, and you beat a team that you’re an underdog to, and you beat Matt Ryan, and you play and Nick Foles played well enough, I think you deserve it.

I think I’ve gotta admit, hey look. I think I was wrong in terms of how far I went with Doug. I’m not sure how great of a coach Doug is. But I was wrong in terms of how far I went with it.

There’s definitely some hedging in there. The part about Schwartz, for example. And the “I’m not sure how great of a coach Doug is” line as well.

But what Lombardi thinks ultimately doesn’t matter. Dougie P continues to prove his doubters wrong and the Eagles continue to win.

With Pederson and Carson Wentz at the helm, it feels like the Eagles are in good shape for the considerable future. And they might even win a dang Super Bowl this year without Wentz.

That would be Doug’s ultimate “F*** you” to the haters, such as Lombardi.