Former NFL head coach Doug Pederson spent 2025 away from football for the first time in over three decades. CBS Sports just ended that break. The network formally announced on Monday, July 27, that the Super Bowl-winning former Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach will join its college football coverage as an analyst for the 2026 season. He’s expected to call around 10 games on CBS Sports Network this fall.

“It’s easy to sit in a press box and say, ‘They should run the ball.’ Come down and stand on the sideline with me and make decisions,” Pederson said during a post-game conference in 2018.

For years, he was the one on the sideline making those calls and dismissing the press box crowd for making them look easy. Now he’s about to be part of that crowd himself.

At 58, he brings experience from every level of the game. He played quarterback in the NFL for 13 seasons, mostly as a backup, appearing in 100 regular season games for Miami, Green Bay, Philadelphia and Cleveland. He completed 286 of 522 passes for 2,762 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions. He made 17 starts total during that time.

His transition to coaching began on the Eagles’ staff under head coach Andy Reid and later continued when Reid moved to the Kansas City Chiefs, where Pederson served as offensive coordinator from 2013 to 2015. Playing under one of football’s sharpest offensive minds left a mark. Pederson carried those lessons into his own coaching career, and it showed in Philadelphia.

The Eagles gave him the head coaching job in 2016. February 2018 was his defining moment. Wentz was done for the year. Torn ACL. Pederson took Nick Foles and a team nobody believed in and beat New England 41-33 in Super Bowl LII. Philadelphia got its first title ever.

That Super Bowl is also remembered for one of the most famous plays in NFL history. Facing fourth down in the red zone before halftime, Pederson called the “Philly Special”, a trick play where quarterback Nick Foles lined up as a receiver and caught a touchdown pass. The call is still talked about as one of the gutsiest in postseason history.

After four more seasons in Philadelphia, Pederson took over the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2022, won the AFC South in his first year, and was let go after a 22-29 overall record across three seasons in 2024.

Four more seasons in Philadelphia followed. Then Jacksonville in 2022. He won the AFC South in year one with the Jaguars before going 22-29 overall across three seasons. They let him go in 2024.

CBS brought him in as part of a bigger college football coverage push. Former LSU and Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was also announced in the same press release.

Doug Pederson Joins Booth That Also Includes Brian Kelly

Kelly was at LSU until the middle of 2025, finishing 34-14 before getting fired. CBS has given him more than just a seat in the booth. Tuesday nights, he is on Inside College Football. He also pops up on CBS Sports HQ.

Notre Dame is where he built his name. 113 wins in twelve seasons. Nobody in the history of that program has won more games as head coach.

“My motivation is to want to get back to building relationships and successful programs in college football,” Kelly said, per On3. “I have a lot to give. Money aside, I have a lot to give.”

Both coaches are widely expected to treat this season as a bridge rather than a destination, with reporting suggesting each could be eyeing a return to the sidelines as soon as 2027. For now, Kelly and Pederson sharing a broadcast booth gives CBS something real to build on heading into the fall.