By Eliot Shorr-Parks | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The sun had barely come up over Philadelphia when Eagles receiver Marcus Johnson arrived at the NovaCare Complex for an early-morning workout.

After he entered the building, Johnson went to the steam room, expecting to have the place to himself and prepare for a day of work. As he was entering the room, however, Johnson heard steps behind him, and turned to see who it was.

"Damn," Johnson remembers saying, "how long have you been here?”

Staring at Johnson was head coach Doug Pederson, the last person Johnson expected to see considering that when Johnson had left the night before, the coach's car was still in its normal spot in the back of the lot. Pederson had spent the whole night at the complex, and was just finishing up an early-morning workout.

"It isn’t an accident how well we are doing," Johnson said, "or how good of a position he puts us in."

No matter which stall you stop at in the Eagles' locker room, each player has his own story about an interaction with Pederson, a piece of advice he gave them or a moment when they realized he was a good head coach.

As the Eagles prepare to take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, here are the players' stories, in his own words.

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Alex Brandon | AP PHOTO

BEAU ALLEN, DT

"Last year, when I was playing fullback at the end of training camp, Doug came up to me and was, like, ‘Hey, have you ever played fullback before? We want to work you out at fullback.’ I thought he was joking. This was last year at the end of camp, and I really didn’t think anything of it. I thought he was messing with me. So then after practice, it was me, Howie (Roseman), Joe Douglas, Coach P. They ran me through a fullback workout. Like a real fullback workout. I was not really ready for it. It was fun, but Coach was the one throwing the balls, and he was like ripping balls to me out in the flat. I was snagging them all, of course, because I have amazing hands. But that was a fun thing. He was really getting into it."

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JAYLEN WATKINS, CB

"In the training room one day, I was with (linebacker) Jordan Hicks. We were in the booths, and he stopped to just talk ball with us. Just talking scheme. I had never really had an interaction like that with a head coach. Just with coordinators. But he was just passing through, walked over to us, sat with us for 10 minutes, just talking. That right there, if I had to explain him in one that, that is him. That is what makes him so good as a coach."

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WENDELL SMALLWOOD, RB

"All through OTAs, through training camp, through the season, he has been about the players. What works for us, what doesn’t work for us. He meets with the player committee every week. They discuss things -- they discuss the schedule, they discuss what we are going to do. Most [coaches] I have been around, it is their way. It is how they run things. But he has adjusted things. He might say, 'Let’s do something this way,' and somebody might have an opinion, and whether he changes it or not, he considers it. He does what is best for the team and does what is best for the guys to put us in the best situations."

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BRYAN BRAMAN, DE

"You can actually have a conversation with him. Sometimes head coaches try to keep that separate. Keep a separation between the players. Obviously, they have certain players they need to pay more attention to -- the bigger money guys. But with Doug, he interacts with everybody. It doesn’t matter where you sit on the roster. Whether you are the No. 1 player or a bubble player. He is going to treat you like a human being. That is awesome."

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Jake Roth | AP PHOTO

ZACH ERTZ, TE

"The thing he always says to the team is ‘Let your personality show.' As a player, you always see coaches that want to corral the team, they want to have full control over the team. But when you are telling players to let your personality show, you are kind of taking a step back and letting us control the situation. I think you see how loose we play as a team every Sunday."

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MACK HOLLINS, WR

"It has nothing to do with football, but he told me, 'Don’t bring those damn snakes (that Hollins' collects) in here.' That was like one of the first things he ever said to me. But with football, he reminds me to come prepared every day. Every day is a day you are being graded and judged. You have to bring your best. Don’t come to practice if you aren’t prepared."

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RONALD DARBY, CB

"He been the same since Day 1. He is a consistent coach. I knew right off the bat he was a good coach."

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STEFEN WISNIEWSKI, OG

"He is always talking about taking ownership of everything we do. I really like that. I like that he is always saying that we have to believe. We have to believe in ourselves, believe in our teammates. Regardless of what the outside might be saying of what we are capable of. It is about us. It is about the guys in this room believing in each other above everything else."

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Kirby Lee | AP PHOTO

RODNEY MCLEOD, S

"His energy. His messages that he gives. They are always very helpful. Locking in and staying the course. He always preaches that. So there is a lot I can take from Doug, but his energy, man, and the messages that he gives to the team are always on point. He says, ‘Are you committed, or are you only interested?’ I love that quote from him. Because it is real. He has a lot of those. A lot of those phrases that I’m sure players all around the locker room can point out one that they like."

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NATE GERRY, LB

"I ran into him one at the end of a play at practice by accident. He came up to me the next day, and he started talking a little smack to me. It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about. But it was all in a joking manner. It was just kind of like, when you notice little things like that, you know how much someone really does care."

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JOE WALKER, LB

"I don’t think I can pick one moment, but just the team meetings. The commitment he shows to this team, the commitment he shows to this locker room. It really has shown the whole season."

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NATE SUDFELD, QB

"Seeing the way he operates. How he is such a good father, such a good husband, such a good person doing the job. It can be a stigma that you have to be a hard guy to be a college or NFL coach. He demands a lot out of us, but he is also a first-class human being."

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STEVEN MEANS, LB

"After that first game in Washington, throwing the Gatorade on him. He turned around with this smile. He was happy to win that game. We had lost to [the Redskins] a couple times in a row. For that to be how the season started, I think it kick-started everything. That smile of Doug’s will always stick with me."

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Yong Kim | TNS

LANE JOHNSON, OT

"From the beginning, he always asked us if we are 'just interested or are we committed?' A lot of guys say they want to do a certain thing, they want to win games, they want to do this. But he asks us what are we going to do to prepare for it? How are we going to approach it? So he has the same mindset as everyone else, but he has a good way of approaching us and explaining things in a way the players can relate, too, because he has played the game."

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CHRIS LONG, DE

"All of his really brave calls. I don’t know if there was one that particularly did it for me, but I remember just the other day, the flea flicker. It was just like … the electricity, the momentum it created, the ingenuity, just making that call. He is fearless and our team plays that way."

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NELSON AGHOLOR, WR

"I always have had a great relationship with Doug because I see the excitement he coaches with. I know it is creativity. I'm really blessed to have a head coach like him. Every day I want to keep making myself a well-rounded player, so I can help him be more creative, and keep doing what we are doing, because I really love and embrace how he moves players around."

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WHERE TO REACH ME

Eliot Shorr-Parks may be reached at eshorrpa@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @EliotShorrParks. Find NJ.com Eagles on Facebook.

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Eliot Shorr-Parks | NJ Advance Media

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