PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Opinions have clearly been split since the report came in that the Eagles are going to name Doug Pederson as the team’s next head coach. When the Eagles hire Chip Kelly three years ago, they hired the best coach on the market by some people’s measure.

Kelly was seen as an enigma. He was viewed as an offensive genius that was going to bring the fast-paced, spread college style to the NFL and do so with success.

Pederson doesn’t have that buzz right now. He’s been an offensive coordinator for Andy Reid since Reid joined the Chiefs. Prior to that he served as a quarterbacks coach for the Eagles under Reid.

He isn’t viewed as a genius and there weren’t tons of other teams breaking down the door to get him. Columnists and insiders are dubbing Pederson’s hire a failure before he’s even been introduced as the new coach.

According to rankings by ESPN, Pederson’s hire was the worst hire of a head coach to this point. Here’s how ESPN ranked the first 6 hires of this hiring season (since this list was released, the Tennessee Titans promoted Mike Mularkey from interim coach to head coach):

Hue Jackson, Cleveland Browns Chip Kelly, San Francisco 49ers Adam Gase, Miami Dolphins Dirk Koetter, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ben McAdoo, New York Giants Doug Pederson, Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles expressed interest in both Ben McAdoo and Adam Gase. Both coaches accepted jobs with other teams, prior to the Eagles’ decision to go with Pederson. The Birds also reportedly reached out to Hue Jackson, but he was too far down the road with the Browns to be able to pry away.

Tom Coughlin withdraw his name from consideration for the Eagles job and the only other people to interview for the gig were Eagles assistants, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and running backs coach Duce Staley.

The general consensus has become that Pederson must not have been the Eagles first choice.