Eagles coach does not want his players trying to get Odell Beckham ejected
The NFL is changing every week it feels like, but up until last week the talk of the league was coming out of New York. Odell Beckham Jr. has been acting like a child lately. First he fought a net, then he cried and last week he was completely removed from the game plan by Xavier Rhodes who was in his head the whole game. When Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was asked how he was going to focus on Beckham, he said he would have a different approach. He did not want his players trying to get Odell off his soapbox.
“If you’re more worried about trying to get a player ejected then you’re not focused on your job,” Pederson said, via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk. “I think that’s something that [defensive coordinator] Jim Schwartz has brought to these guys and the defensive staff is just, ‘Do your job.’ You saw it against the Pittsburgh Steelers … I don’t think you go into a game and say, ‘We’ve got to poke and pester this player.’ I just don’t think you do that. If you do that then I think that’s when you get beat and that’s when somebody like an Odell Beckham with the talent that he has can beat you. There’s ten other guys on that team that can beat you. Again, it is a fine line but that’s got to be my message to the football team.”
Pederson said he will use Beckham’s attitude as a reminder that his team must remain calm, but competitive.
“It goes back to the messaging to the football team from myself and just keep reiterating points of emphasis that way and cooler heads prevail,” Pederson said. “Listen, I get it; I’ve been a player. I understand the dynamic of the heat of the battle and all of that. I mean, we’re in this business for that reason. We love the competition and at the same time you just have to remain calm. It is a hard thing, it is a tough thing. You can’t let it affect you and I continue to talk to our team about that stuff each and every week.”
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