Carson Wentz Confirms he is Starting, Looks Ahead to Seattle
Carson Wentz’s body of work has undergone a thorough autopsy.
Eleven weeks into the season, every nook and cranny of his game has been studied, analyzed, and regurgitated locally and nationally.
Everything from poor offensive line play to receivers who can’t beat press coverage to faulty game plans to lingering concussion issues to heaven knows what else. And frankly, maybe only heaven knows what’s up with the quarterback who suddenly is absorbing questions about being benched.
“We keep going round and round with this,” said head coach Doug Pederson. “I’ve gone back and looked at ’17, ’18 tape, our coaching staff, I know he has, we looked at everything from play calling, me? Am I different, am I using the personnel right, am I making decisions that are beneficial to the team?
“I look at a bunch of that stuff. It comes down to each person, each player, each coach taking a look at yourself, looking in the mirror, seeing what you see. If you don’t like what you see you have to change, you have to make improvements, you have to get better.”
As the self-reflection continues, Wentz will remain the starting quarterback on Monday night against the Seattle Seahawks.
Asked point-blank on Wednesday morning if he was starting Monday night against the Seattle Seahawks, a very serious and somber Wentz simply said, “yes.”
Pederson, of course, as he is wont to be, wasn’t as succinct.
Just as he did with questions a couple of weeks ago about Brett Favre’s opinion on getting rid of Wentz rather than Nick Foles, Pederson hemmed and hawed a bit before, a few questions later, getting briskly to the point.
“He’s my starter, end of story,” said the coach. “You guys can blow it up however you want it and that’s fine, I’m focused on this team, these players, this coaching staff, and the Seattle Seahawks.”
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One might think that if the Eagles were to make an in-game move and put Wentz on the bench for a series or two and deploy rookie Jalen Hurts, the move would be discussed during the week After all, the Eagle said they told Wentz on the Friday of the draft that there was a chance they would select another quarterback.
“We really didn’t have that conversation and quite frankly I’m preparing the same,” said Wentz. “I’m the same and I’m approaching the week, attacking the week and doing everything I can to be ready for Monday night.”
It probably wouldn’t be fair to start Jalen Hurts against a Seattle team that has played better lately, especially after acquiring Carlos Dunlap who has brought a pass rush to a unit that had been devoid of much rush.
The Eagles saw Dunlap when he was with the Bengals earlier in the year. He led Cincinnati in tackles that day with nine.
Last year, it was another defensive end that wreaked havoc on Wentz. Jadeveon Clowney, who is now in Tennessee, knocked out Wentz with a concussion in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“I don’t like dwelling on injuries and frankly a head injury is not a fun thing to relive,” said Wentz. “I have a lot of respect for this Seattle defense over the years having played them and I think they play fast. I think they’re different this year, different personnel, different scheme a little bit. As far as how we want to attack them is going to be a little different.”
It had better be.
Wentz, after all, is 0-4 in his career against the DSeahawks with four touchdowns and five interceptions.
And those numbers were compiled before the autopsy of his declining game was underway.
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