[Editor's Note: Promoted from the FanPosts.] --- It's the offseason; the 2017 NFL Draft is over and we only have tidbits from the now concluded rookie minicamp and upcoming OTA's to keep us entertained until training camp opens in July. To fill the dead time, there's been a lot of talk lately (both on this site and on BGN Radio) about Doug Pederson and his future with the Eagles. This is all offseason speculation, but I think it deserves further exploration. What exactly, are the essential qualities of an NFL Head Coach, and which, if any, of these, does Dougie P exemplify? This article will attempt to answer these questions and shed some light on Pederson's ability to take the Eagles where we all want to go: The Super Bowl.

What makes a good Head Coach?

I've broken this down into five essential characteristics that NFL teams need from their coaches to be successful. First, I'll explain these characteristics, and then examine whether or not Doug Pederson qualifies.

Football Knowledge

This includes both scheme and ability to either call the plays on offense or defense and/or mentor a younger play caller on the staff. NFL teams need someone who has a deep understanding of the game and runs schemes that will be successful against other NFL teams. This person will preferably call the plays on whichever side of the ball they specialize in, but there have also been successful head coaches that relied on their assistants to make the calls (Mike McCarthy and Andy Reid have both done this at different points in their careers). A head coach needs to know what he wants his players to do, and what's going to make them successful doing it.

Leadership

There are different types of leadership, and different coaches have been successful with different leadership styles. There are the Bill Parcells/Bill Belichick "no nonsense" types, but we've also seen guys like Tony Dungy be successful with more soft spoken, "player-friendly" styles, as well as guys like Pete Carroll, who has a more positive, exuberant approach. The bottom line is that a coach needs to convince a group of 53 men to put their bodies on the line every Sunday. He needs to make them believe in his vision for the team, and get them to play together for the good of the team. He needs to set expectations, and hold his players accountable to those expectations. Again, there are different ways to be successful at the leadership element of coaching, but a successful coach must be able to lead effectively.

Game/Situation Management

Regardless of whether or not he's calling the plays, the head coach is the one in control of crucial decisions throughout a game. He has to make split-second decisions about when to use time-outs and challenges, and when to go for it on 4th down or send the special teams units out. This is different than leadership in that it's about specific decisions made during the game. This is hard to quantify, as when we question these decisions it is mostly hypothetical. We won't know how the rest of a game would have played out if the coach opted not to kick a field goal, but instead to go for it; all we can do is analyze whether or not the decision made sense given the circumstances at the time.

Player Development

This is another tricky one to evaluate, as we'll never really know how much of a given player's success is based on talent evaluation or on coaching. But, in general, if players improve over time under a coaching regime, the head coach and his staff are doing a good job. If not, they will most likely be fired.

Wins

This might seem obvious, but it's the most clear and obvious measure we have of an NFL head coach. Obviously we have to base our expectations for wins on the situation and the talent on a given team, but good coaches win football games. Bad ones don't. It's that simple.

How has Doug Pederson performed?

Regardless of whether or not he was the Eagles' first choice last year, Doug Pederson is our head coach. We now have one year's worth of information to judge him on. It's a limited sample size, but a fair amount to judge his ability and potential as a head coach moving forward.

Football Knowledge

This was one of many major questions about Pederson when he was hired last year. Despite Andy Reid's claims that he called the plays in the second halves of Chiefs games during the 2015 season, Doug didn't have much experience as a play caller. While he had been mentored by a great football mind in Andy Reid, he was inexperienced. That said, I think he exceeded expectations last year. He took his lumps as a play caller, and didn't always lean on the run hard enough, but the Eagles moved the ball pretty well for the most part, despite starting a rookie QB (who only became the starter 10 days before the season) and missing the team's best offensive lineman for a large chunk of the season.

Pederson showed that he has the chops to be a successful play caller in the NFL, and he ran a much more diverse array of plays and concepts than his predecessor. In addition, he selected a defensive coordinator in Jim Schwartz who was an excellent fit for the defensive talent on this team. Certainly there is still room to improve in this area, but Pederson showed promise for a guy who was calling plays for the first time. Grade: B+

Leadership

This is a tough one to evaluate from the outside looking in. We can all agree that Pederson was improvement over Chip Kelly in this area, but that's not saying much. For the most part, Pederson seemed to have good relationships with the players and they seemed to want to play for him. He's not a yeller or a screamer and he's never going to cuss out a player on the sidelines, but that's not necessarily the only effective way to lead.

Pederson seemed like a "milquetoast" type when he was hired, but after watching him coach for a year, I don't think that's the case either. He showed the moxie and aggressiveness to go for it on 4th downs on more than one occasion (more on the wisdom of that in the next segment). He also displayed the ability to win over a locker room. His players came out to play for him, and week-in, week-out they were competitive. Other than the Bengals game, they were in every single game they played last year. Again, I think Doug was a pleasant surprise. Grade: B

Game/Situation Management

This is the area where Doug struggled the most. We all remember the Giants game, where he repeatedly opted to go for it rather than kicking field goals and essentially cost the Eagles the game. I am optimistic that Doug can improve in this area, but then again, his mentor, Andy Reid, never did. I will say, though, that I thought Doug used timeouts and challenges fairly judiciously, and that his management of the clock in two minute situations was better than expected. It's not all bad here but there's certainly a lot of room to grow. Grade: C-

Player Development

It's hard to determine how much of a player's growth and improvement is due to the head coach and how much is due to the position coaches, but since the head coach selects the position coaches, ultimately he gets the glory for their successes as well. Doug's biggest success as a talent developer was with Carson Wentz. We saw a rookie who got the starting nod with very little notice step onto the field and perform like an experienced vet. Carson showed an understanding of defenses and an ability to adjust plays and audible at the line. His season wasn't perfect, but he performed better than anyone expected despite the lack of talent in the receiving corps. We could give Doug an A just for that alone.

A number of other players showed promise and improvement as the season progressed. Rookie tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai had a rocky first start, but improved as the season went on, as did fellow rookie Isaac Seumalo, who was forced to play multiple positions across the line due to injuries. Wendell Smallwood also flashed in limited action, and Allen Barbre, Jason Kelce, Jason Peters, and Zach Ertz all improved their play over the previous season. The wide receivers are the obvious failing here, but given Greg Lewis's firing, we won't knock Pederson's grade too much for their under-performance, as much of it may have been due to bad talent evaluation by the previous regime. Grade: A

Wins

This team went 7-9 last year. That's not a very good record. In a vacuum, a 7-9 record would probably earn Pederson a C or C-. But consider that this is a team that was starting a rookie QB who played his college ball at Division I FCS NDSU. This is a team that has been casting off talent rather than adding it for the last several years, replacing DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, and LeSean McCoy with the likes of Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, and the oft-injured Ryan Mathews. This is a team whose best offensive lineman was suspended for 10 games and whose starting cornerbacks were Nolan Carroll and the corpse of Leodis McKelvin. This is a team that got screwed by a quirky schedule, getting an early bye week in Week 4 and also having to play three teams coming off of their byes later in the season, two of whom were division opponents. There are no excuses for losing in the NFL, but considering all of these circumstances, the fact that Pederson was able to guide this team to 7 wins is kind of extraordinary. Grade: B-

Can the Eagles win a Super Bowl with Doug Pederson?

This might seem like a cop-out, but the answer to this question is still unknown. Of the 32 head coaches currently leading an NFL squad, only 6 have won a Superbowl (Bill Belichick, Sean Peyton, Pete Carroll, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, Mike McCarthy), and only the great Bill Belichick has won more than one. Andy Reid is perhaps the greatest coach in Eagles history, and even he has yet to win the big one. Additionally, no coach in the history of the NFL has ever won a Super Bowl as the head coach of one franchise, and then gone on to coach another franchise to a championship. Think about that. Even if by some miracle of fate, the Eagles landed Bill Belichick tomorrow, he would have to do something no other coach has ever done to win a Super Bowl in Philadelphia. That said, I would take Belichick in a heartbeat, but McCarthy, Peyton, Carroll, Tomlin, or Harbaugh? I'm not so sure.

The bottom line is Pederson needs time. This franchise needs some consistency. James Seltzer opined on BGN Radio that if the Eagles don't make the playoffs this year, Pederson will be gone. I don't believe that for a second. Lurie, Roseman, and Douglas will give Doug a minimum of three years to prove himself and to develop Carson Wentz into (hopefully) an elite NFL Quarterback. At that point, if this is still a middling team, there is a chance they will move on in search of a more marquee name. The jury is still out on Doug, but he performed well in spots in 2016 and has room to grow in 2017. We should be pulling for him this season, because the future of this franchise is largely in Doug's hands.