Joyner tears down Pederson for 'tank' job originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles finished one of their most forgettable seasons in a long time with a 20-14 loss Sunday night to the Washington Football Team, a game in which the Eagles seemed to try to win … for a while.
Early in the fourth quarter, with the game in the balance, Doug Pederson pulled Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld, a quarterback who has taken zero snaps this season.
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
People that were rooting the Eagles to lose were fine with Pederson's call. The Eagles fans who wanted to see their team win — and the Giants and their fans — were less than pleased.
Former Eagles linebacker and Eagles Postgame Live analyst Seth Joyner never played the game to lose and was appalled by what he saw.
“I have never been more ashamed to be associated with the Philadelphia Eagles than I am tonight,” Joyner said on the show. “I would love to be a fly on the wall and stand in that locker room and hear the words of consolation that Doug Pederson has for that football team after what I just witnessed.
“You asked these guys to play injured, you ask them to play hurt, you ask them to give 100 percent effort, you ask them to lay it on the line. And tonight, [Pederson] owed it to this football team, the way those young guys went out and played their behinds off, he owed them the opportunity to win this game.”
The Eagles’ loss gives them the No. 6 overall pick in the NFL draft this spring. Had they won, they would have picked ninth. Joyner said he’d rather see the team trade down from wherever its pick is to acquire more picks and shore up its offensive and defensive lines.
He doesn’t believe any one player you can draft would change the culture of the team, and he was equally incredulous at the team he played for, essentially throwing a game for a better draft pick.
“I just don’t understand how Doug Pederson can look those guys in the eye and think they can respect what he did, and the decisions he made tonight,” Joyner said. “With those guys laying their health, their well-being, their effort, their manhood and their pride on the line for this organization. And he just went out and just threw this game away.
"In my 34 years of my association with the NFL, I’ve never seen anything like this … I’m blown away, and I feel bad for the players that went out and tried to win this football game, when it was evident to everybody that, for the first time, you see a legitimate attempt to tank and lose a game. I didn’t ever think I’d see that in my lifetime.”
Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube
