Doug Pederson fully expects to be the Eagles’ head coach in 2021

There are naturally questions about Doug Pederson’s job security following the Eagles’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys that dropped Philadelphia to 4-10-1 and officially eliminated them from the NFL playoff picture.

NFL Network previously reported back in early December that Pederson is “on the hot seat with his future in doubt.”

Speaking after the game on Sunday evening, though, the Eagles’ head coach talked about how he’s “part of the solution” moving forward. Pederson further expressed confidence in his return during his weekly day-after interview on SportsRadio 94WIP.

JON JOHNSON: Over the course of the next week and weeks to come, the conversation in this town and I’m sure in-house as well is what changes need to be made in the offseason to get the franchise back on track. Inevitably, at some point, your name will be brought up in these conversations. When you think of your future as head coach, do you feel that it might be in jeopardy?

DOUG PEDERSON: “Listen, I don’t. I feel fully confident to be the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021. The thing that I’m most proud of with this football team, we’ve been in the postseason three of the last five years since I’ve been here, and that’s pretty good. We’ve won a championship here. We’ve gone through a season where a lot of our veteran guys are not playing due to injury. And we’re playing with a lot of young players. Yeah, there’s always going to be evaluation in the offseason, and obviously my job is evaluated as well. But I fully expect to be the coach next season and I welcome that opportunity to get things right and get things fixed and take this team into next season.”

Of course, just because Pederson thinks he’s going to be back doesn’t mean he’s right about it. Just ask Mike Groh and Carson Walch. And it’s not like Doug is going to say ‘Nah, I’m going to get fired.’

But Pederson might’ve been more vague and less definitive if he knew he was a total lock to be fired? Just a thought.

The guess here is that Pederson is more likely to be gone than not. Jeffrey Lurie seems to be losing patience with his head coach, as evidenced by him skipping a road game this season and reportedly walking out of practices in disgust.

Pederson is currently signed through 2022 but there is precedent for Lurie firing a head coach with two years left on his deal. He did so with Chip Kelly back in 2015. Then again, Kelly wasn’t the team’s first and only Super Bowl-winning head coach in franchise history. Far from it.

The Eagles are relatively far removed from their championship success in 2017, though. The team is 22-23-1 since the beginning of 2018 and the future looks bleak. Pederson undoubtedly deserves a share of blame for the Eagles’ struggles. The team has too often dug holes for themselves to climb out of and they couldn’t manage to do as much this year. The offense hasn’t come close to ranking among the NFL’s elites.

Howie Roseman arguably deserves even more blame than Pederson but Lurie seemingly has no interest in holding him accountable since the general manager’s job reportedly isn’t in jeopardy.

And so, despite his stated belief that he’ll be back, we might see Pederson coaching his last game with the Eagles in Week 17.