Carson Wentz in 'Good Place' After Head Injury
Carson Wentz was supposed to change a narrative in January’s playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Instead, a rogue Jadeveon Clowney hit turned a healthy season into a third straight one where the Eagles quarterback was unable to cross the finish line.
In 2017-18 it was Nick Foles finishing for the Eagles and it was 2019 he n Josh McCown was forced to drag his damaged hamstring to the conclusion of a 17-9 setback. To some critics, playing more snaps than any other NFL QB in the regular season turned to Philadelphia using a premium asset on a young backup in Jalen Hurts just in case the "injury-prone" Wentz couldn't be counted on.
"Obviously, I’ve had some time to reflect on that," said Wentz via video conference with reporters on Monday afternoon. "It’s frustrating. I’ve said it before about injuries. It’s the unfortunate part of the game.”
The frustration this time was only amped up by the fact that it wasn’t an ACL or a stress fracture, it was the murkiness of a head injury.
“This one felt a little different being the fluky nature that it was,” said Wentz. “A head injury is something that is out of your control. It’s the really frustrating part. I know the league is trying to do everything it can to take the head injuries out of it, but we as players know what we’re signing up for.”
The most difficult part for Wentz was understanding his teammates had to move forward without him. Perhaps a win would have changed that feeling, especially if Wentz would have returned for the divisional round of the postseason, but those kinds of thoughts are all hypotheticals now.
“For me, I was just frustrated to a) have to deal with a concussion, because that’s never fun, I don’t wish that on anybody, but b) to not to be able to finish that game with my teammates and not give us the best chance to win and do everything I could,” said Wentz.
There was plenty of positive as well.
Wentz was proud of what the banged-up Eagles accomplished late in the season to even get to the playoffs and the fact McCown had them in a position to try to at least tie the game against the Seahawks late before ultimately coming up short.
“I think everyone did look back on it and grow and learn a lot from and how we weathered a lot of that adversity,” he said. "... I took some time to reflect on the season as a whole and I’m extremely proud of the guys. It makes me that much hungrier to get back to work so we can go do something bigger."
Wentz clarified some of the questions surrounding the injury as well.
“I think you guys kind of know how we operate," said the QB. "We don’t dive too much into specifics about injuries, but with this one, I know there’s always speculation. ... did they take him out? Did he actually have (a concussion)? I can confirm that I had a concussion.”
Wentz also admitted how scary the issue was.
“I was dealing with symptoms,” he said. “It’s scary stuff because it kind of changes things in your brain, and you only get one of these brains, so I gotta protect it.
“I was dealing with it, and it was unfortunate, but fortunately, I’m in a pretty good place."
John McMullen covers the Eagles for SI.com and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every day on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, Every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio, and every weekday on ESPN 97.3 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
