Nothing to See Here: Schwartz Denies Disconnect with Pederson

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz denied any disconnect with his boss on Tuesday.

"I'll say this unequivocally. I'm very comfortable with my relationship with Doug Pederson and I know he's comfortable with his relationship with me," Schwartz said at his weekly media availability session on Tuesday.

The questioning came in a response to a Philly.com report that at least speculates that Schwartz, a former head coach in Detroit, could be angling for Pederson's job in the wake of controversial comments from former NFL general manager Mike Lombardi, a long-time friend of Schwartz.

Lombardi claimed that Pederson was maybe the least-qualified coach to be hired in his 30-plus years around the league and "everyone knows it."

"What I do here is work extremely hard to execute the defense the way [Pederson] has outlined it to me," Schwartz said. "I'm very comfortable in that. And not everybody is privy to those instructions. So if anybody misunderstands or misinterprets any actions, just know that coach Pederson is aware of everything I do in this building and outside of the building."

Schwartz did acknowledge his personality may be fueling this story.

"I can be brash, check. I can be in your face. check," Schwartz said. "It's the only way I know how to coach defense and as long as coach Pederson is fine with it, I'm going to continue that and he is."

What can be said is that several players do believe Schwartz has greater ambitions.

"I'm gonna execute the job the way he outlined it for me," Schwartz said. "Anything else we can't really worry about."

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen