Doug Pederson caves and names Nick Foles the starter for Thursday
After saying he won’t announce the decision until Thursday, Doug Pederson caves by naming the starter on Monday.
This past offseason wasn’t easy for Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Doug Pederson. He entertained nonstop questions concerning the health of the franchise quarterback, Carson Wentz for the entirety of the offseason. “Is Carson going to be ready to go by week one?” That sentence may very well haunt Doug Pederson for years to come now. Eventually, enough was enough for the head coach, and he started to lose patience.
On Sunday, a visibly frustrated Doug Pederson stood at the podium in the Nova Care Complex to voice his anger towards the media. After saying that he would announce the starter of Thursday’s game only 90 minutes before kickoff, word got out that the decision has been made this weekend. Well, Doug was not very pleased, to say the least.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has had some questionable information regarding the Eagles over the offseason. He’s reported that both, Carson Wentz and Alshon Jeffery would start the season on the PUP list. Well, we all figured out that he was wrong. So it was only right to be skeptical with Rapaport’s report that stated Nick Foles, not Carson Wentz would start on Thursday.
Pederson Caves on Monday:
Doug Pederson wasted no time on Monday when he returned to the podium. Right off the bat, the Eagles head coach announced that Nick Foles would start for the Eagles. At this point, Pederson probably realizes that announcing the decision won’t make much of a difference when the rest of the NFL pretty much knows the deal. Here’s what he had to say.
"“Nick Foles is the starter and we have complete confidence, obviously, in what he can do,” Pederson told me just prior to making the announcement. “We’re ready to go with Nick.”"
There you have it, short and sweet. Super Bowl MVP, Nick Foles will pick up where he left off. Hopefully, regular season Foles looks nothing like he did the last few weeks in the preseason. It’s understandable that there was no game planning for the offense, but Foles was still making some very questionable mistakes for a veteran quarterback. And as far as Wentz goes, he is still not cleared for contact. He could get the green light any day now, but as of right now he is still waiting.