Eagles Try To Salvage Season with Accountability

PHILADELPHIA - With Aaron Rodgers and the NFL’s top-scoring offense looming on Sunday afternoon, the Eagles’ big tweak is accountability?

That was the buzzword inside the Eagles organization this week as the team’s 3-7-1 start has turned the seemingly solid ground under Doug Pederson into a washed-out mess less than 36 months after winning Super Bowl LII.

The head coach gave up play-calling in a 23-17 loss to Seattle, handing the reins to passing game coordinator Press Taylor for the second half. The two-minute stuff had already been given to senior offensive consultant Rich Scangarello, the outside voice owner Jeffrey Lurie demanded after last season.

After the Seahawks loss on Monday night, a number of team leaders stuck around even later into the wee hours of Tuesday morning for an impromptu meeting with Pederson, names you’d expect like Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, and Carson Wentz.

That went national on Sunday morning when NFL Media addressed it.

The theme was “preaching accountability and taking responsibility” for one’s actions, not exactly the kind of concrete football activism you wanted to be discussing in early December after three months of ineptitude.

Nor is an added sense of urgency with the intent of saving a job for a coach that probably shouldn’t even want it any longer.

“The first step is admitting where you were bad at, and that's what I love that Carson did,” Graham said earlier in the week. “When we talked to the team, he knew that he had to own some of the stuff that he's been doing, but at the same time, he let us know that he's working his butt off to make so they start doing a lot of stuff better.

“And that's all people want to hear is you take ownership of yours, and we can move on because that's how you build relationships, taking ownership of what you do.”

A star quarterback by nature is a team leader but too many have questioned that when it comes to Wentz over the years and the fact it’s being spun as anything more than pedestrian in Week 13 of his fifth season is not as positive as some might perceive it as.

It should be second nature at this point of Wentz’s career.

Meanwhile, Lurie’s lack of respect for Pederson over the last calendar year has been somewhat startling and highlights a one-sided approach that flies in the face of the owner’s hollow words on collaboration.

Pederson’s done his part. He didn’t pull a power play after winning the Lombardi Trophy when it came to personnel and in return, it seems like the brass decided they had a vessel for their whims rather than a meaningful partner.

Lurie pushed Pederson to fire trusted offensive coordinator Mike Groh after the 2019 season even after a December miracle, demanding that outside voice because of his X’s and O’s expertise told him the offense didn’t have enough of bells and whistles, even though it was Pederson and Groh who turned Boston Scott into a bell and Greg Ward into a whistle, at least at times.

When Pederson was asked about his job this week the coach admitted he has gotten no assurances from Lurie.

Kelce and Graham taking accountability is like saying the sun rises in the east so Sunday’s morning’s little nugget was floated to put the struggling Wentz in a better light.

It’s just the latest attempt to salvage No. 11.

“And now let's do something about it,” Graham said. “And so what I like, this week (Wentz has) been just doing something about it in practice. We're trying to bring energy. … it's all infectious and people start to pick it up some.”

“Nobody expects us to do nothing,” Graham continued. “They expect us to fold and just say forget it. Let's wrap up 2020 and let's get ready for 2021. That ain't where we trying to go. It's still a lot of ball left.”

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Tuesday and Thursday on "The Middle" with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, and Barrett Brooks on SportsMap Radio and PhillyVoice.com. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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