What Happened to Collaborative Approach, as Doug Pederson, Alone, Mulls His QB?

It doesn't feel like the right approach to let the coach make what could be a franchise-altering decision

Doug Pederson has not received any assurances that he will return in 2021, yet here is the Eagles head coach about to be trusted with a decision that could not alter the course of this organization for the final four games but into the offseason and beyond.

For years the Eagles have sold us on the notion that this is a collaborative approach between all tentacles of the front office to the owner to the head coach.

Where is the collaboration now?

Doug Pederson said on Monday that he alone will shoulder the decision as to whether or not to start Carson Wentz or go with rookie Jalen Hurts for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.

“I don't necessarily want to be swayed by others' opinions, because sometimes that can cloud judgment, right?” said Pederson. “And even sometimes as a play-caller, you go with your gut. You see things in-game and you make decisions in-game that hopefully benefit the football team. Kind of with that being said, I feel like that's the right thing to do in this situation.”

Oh yes, the play-calling thing.

Nothing like a quarterback controversy to distract from that.

Who helped call the plays and when did they call them was last week’s investigation, yesterday’s news, as it’s known. Not a single question was asked about that following Sunday’s 30-16 loss to the Green Bay Packers nor was one asked about it on Monday when Pederson talked to the beat writers.

Quarterback controversies trump all, and the Eagles have one.

Lay the blame at the feet of general manager Howie Roseman if you like for drafting Hurts in the first place. In his defense, though, how was he to know that Wentz would play so horribly and that the Hurts pick would come back to snarl at him?

There is no crystal ball in creation that could have foreseen what the fifth-year quarterback has gone through this year.

So, here’s Pederson now, sitting on what my father-in-law would describe as “the horns of a dilemma.”

Start Hurts and risk losing Wentz, reducing even further what is left of his confidence, which, despite what he says to the contrary, can’t be much.

What happens then?

Is it an open competition for the job in spring? Do the Eagles try to trade Wentz regardless of the dead money they would have to eat in the whopper contract handed him last June?

Start Wentz and risk losing the locker room, because you know there are factions in whatever passes for a locker room in this COVID-19 environment that have taken sides in this thing, and the smart money would be on the side of let’s see what the rookie can do because we’ve seen what Wentz has done.

It doesn’t feel like there is a right answer here.

So, why not make the most informed one possible?

He has to have somebody on the coaching staff he trusts to simply ask, ‘Hey, whattya think?’ Pederson and Duce Staley, for instance, go back a very long time.

The coach has talked about making the decision in the best interests of the team, which makes it a “now” answer, not a future answer, because, again, Pederson isn’t assured of being back in 2021.

Pederson would know what the best interests are of the team, as others would, too.

Press Taylor is the quarterback coach and passing game coordinator. He’s been with Wentz since Wentz arrived in 2016.

“Press and I have a lot of conversations, but I don't necessarily feel the need to ask him,” said Pederson. “I think I have - I will definitely think about some of those conversations we've had in the past, and all of that, but again, it's - I don't need a whole lot of outside influence to make a decision one way or the other.”

Perhaps somewhere in that answer is that Taylor’s judgment on Wentz could be clouded since the two have become good friends off the field, which may or not be one of the thousand reasons for Wentz’s struggles because it’s not supposed to be a good thing when you are friends with the boss.

A line has to be drawn somewhere.

Pederson apparently has drawn his line with his quarterback decision. It is his and his alone.

That just doesn’t seem like the right approach to such a weighty determination.

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