Eagles coach Doug Pederson has tie to Panthers; his time in Charlotte wasn’t trivial
Who immediately comes to mind when you think of Carolina Panthers quarterbacks during the team’s 24 seasons?
Cam Newton is a given. Jake Delhomme nearly knocked off a budding dynasty in New England during Carolina’s Super Bowl season in 2003. Kerry Collins quickly became the team’s starter as a rookie in 1995.
But the first quarterback on Carolina’s roster wasn’t Collins or Frank Reich. It was a guy with two Super Bowl rings who never played a down in a Panthers uniform.
And he’ll coach against them this Sunday.
Carolina drafted current Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson with the 44th pick of the 1995 NFL expansion draft, making him the first quarterback affiliated with the franchise.
His tenure was short, but he remembers the excitement from his stint “a few moons ago.”
“Dom Capers was the head coach and I think I spent three or four months there in the Charlotte area,” Pederson said. “And I’ll tell you, my wife and I have really enjoyed that area. We were hoping that maybe we would have stuck and stayed there. But things happen, and you move on.”
Pederson began his NFL career in Miami as an undrafted free agent, spending a season in the World League of American Football before returning to the Dolphins in 1992.
Carolina took him in the expansion draft three years later but released him after drafting Kerry Collins in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft.
The three quarterbacks on the Panthers roster in 1995? Collins, Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich and Fox Sports Radio host Jack Trudeau.
Pederson won a Super Bowl as Brett Favre’s backup during the 1996 season, and another as the Eagles coach last season.
But he never forgot the few months he and Jeannie spent in the Charlotte area. Last year’s trip to the Queen City served as a reminder of what the city meant to him.
“Well I’ll tell you, (my No. 1 memory) was living there. I think we were in Rock Hill, S.C. that first year, having to travel back and forth to practice in the offseason,” Pederson said. “Unfortunately I didn’t get to play in any games or anything like that, but my wife and I, our son was just born. Our oldest son was a brand-new child obviously at the time.
“Living in the area, we really felt comfortable there. It felt like the South. It felt like obviously, you’re in NASCAR country. For me, it was bass-fishing heaven. I had a chance to fish on some of the lakes and it was just a great time for about four months that I was there.”
As a coach or coordinator, Pederson has won two of his three matchups against the Panthers, with the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. He praised the franchise’s leadership throughout its existence, calling the Panthers’ success a reflection of the city they play in.
“You see that all the way down through the coaches, if it was John Fox or Capers early on, now Ron Rivera,” Pederson said. “Their desire to be excellent. And obviously playing in a Super Bowl a couple of years ago and how they’ve really built that franchise, I think it’s a great sports town.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 4:14 PM.