It’s been a wild few weeks for the Philadelphia Eagles. In just a few short breaths, the Doug Pederson era came to a close, Carson Wentz expressed his desire for an early exit, and the team blew up the offensive coaching staff. After rebuilding it from the ground up, it’s hard not to connect the dots and see that this was a staff put together with an intent to help repair a broken quarterback. The Eagles have done their part, now it’s down to Wentz.
Carson Wentz has every reason to be frustrated. The franchise that drafted him had let him down in so many ways over the past few years. However, his regression was shocking to even the most understanding of minds and it ultimately led to his benching.
Sure, he was sacked 50 times, only twice less than Russell Wilson who led the league in that metric and played in 3.5 more games. But the poor decision-making, lack of touch on the deep ball, and broken mechanics all played key roles too. As time has passed, there have been just as many concerning reports about Wentz off the field as there have about his play on it.
His ‘Type-A’ personality has been ripped to shreds on numerous occasions by anonymous sources and the last few months have seen a stark rise in people jumping on the bandwagon. From a lack of accountability to a grudge-match with his head coach, it’s not like Wentz has had a ton of glowing press since his benching.
Moving on from the North Dakota State product was never going to be easy given his $33M cap-hit, so it made logical sense to try and hit reset on the pieces around him and hope that the QB can turn it around.
Removing Press Taylor, his former QB coach whose relationship with Wentz had long been scrutinized for being too personal was a big step. But we also know that Wentz really didn’t take to John DeFilippo’s coaching back in 2016-17 and preferred the laid back approach that Taylor brought. While confounding, it’s easy to see why Wentz may not be too happy about Taylor’s departure.
Nick Sirianni helped build a very young coaching staff who all have a history working with established quarterbacking talent. Shane Steichen helped mold Justin Herbert’s rookie season and previously worked with Sirianni to help bring the best out of Phillip Rivers. The teams’ new QB coach, Brian Johnson, previously coached up Dak Prescott at Mississippi State and has a personal relationship with Jalen Hurts.
The Eagles have done all they can to hit reset on the same ideology that pushed Wentz to brilliance in 2017. A coaching core with connections to great quarterbacks who instead of having previous playing experience, are much closer to his age as Press Taylor was. It’s now down to Wentz to see if he wants to swallow the pill.
If the QB insists on folding his arms and throwing a Type-A tantrum, then he may be facing an early exit. The stage has been set, the cast has been assembled. It’s now all on Carson Wentz to make similar adjustments. The Eagles QB has to look in the mirror and realize that he too was responsible for the teams’ downfall last year and crying over spilt milk won’t change a thing. It comes down to maturity, awareness, and character. Wentz has to evolve if he is to survive in Philadelphia.
Ultimately, Carson Wentz can be led to water, he can’t be forced to drink. It seems as though the team acknowledged that there was clear unrest in the QB room after the bizarre events of 2020 and whether right or wrong, they bought Wentz a bouquet of Flowers in the hopes he’ll take them back. He was supposedly ready to run to the exit door just a month or so ago. The Birds have done their part. It’s now on Carson Wentz to prove he was worth all of the torture endured these past few weeks.
Photo by Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire
