The Philadelphia Eagles take on the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. Right before the teams face off, Bears head coach, John Fox, offered high praise for Eagles rookie quarterback, Carson Wentz, and wasn’t shy in his admiration for him either.
“I saw a guy that can make all the throws,” Bears head coach John Fox said on a conference call with Philadelphia media Thursday. “He made good decisions. I think he was a guy that was very-highly touted coming out, I know he was in our room. From what I understand, he is an outstanding teammate. But I think, all in all, for a first game, he did a great job.”
What a difference a week makes. Before Wentz’s debut, many questioned if the quarterback was even ready to start. The Cleveland Browns brass believed Wentz wasn’t even capable of becoming a “top-20” quarterback in their words.
After his impressive debut, which included 22 completions on 37 pass attempts for 278 passing yards, two touchdowns and a 101.0 quarterback rating, Fox couldn’t help but to acknowledge how solid Wentz was.
“Cleveland went zero blitz on him and he rifled a little slant into the slot,” Fox said. “Very accurate. He can make all the throws. We evaluated Carson coming out. He’s an outstanding young player, for sure.”
Fox wa later asked how the Bears organization had Wentz rated on their draft boards. He was incredibly honest with his answer, which is somewhat surprising since most teams like to keep things like this in house.
“Yeah, I think it’s pretty fair to say that the other 31 cities in the league had him rated pretty high,” Fox said.
Fox is coaching his third NFL team in the Bears. He also coached the Denver Broncos (2011-2014) and the Carolina Panthers (2002-2010) appearing with both teams in a Super Bowl.
Fox’s franchise quarterbacks he’s coached include: Jay Cutler, Peyton Manning, and Jake Delhomme. He’s been around the quarterback position for a long time, so his praise for Wentz is definitely encouraging for the Eagles. Hopefully Wentz shows tonight that he warrants such praise from a well respected NFL head coach.
