Former Eagles DE Chris Long defends Carson Wentz, Alshon Jeffery

Former Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long comes to defend Carson Wentz and Alshon Jeffery from the media and fans.

The last two weeks haven’t exactly been great for the Philadelphia Eagles. While the fan base is beginning to lose their minds as the team went on a two-game losing streak — the locker room isn’t really reacting much better.

Guys are revealing too much to the media, and even seemingly subliminally throwing others under the bus. That’s not the worst part, though. It’s one thing if a player stands up to the media and speaks their mind with their name behind everything, but it’s another to send locker room dirt to a reporter so it can hit the newswire anonymously.

That happened last season when the Eagles fell into a rut — and now it’s happening again as Philly falls to 3-4 on the year trailing in the NFC East. As the quotes came out going against Howie Roseman, Doug Pederson, and more specifically, Carson Wentz, everybody is beginning to take guesses at where the quotes may be coming from.

Last season, many assumed that wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was the one who complained about the ‘over-targeting’ of Zach Ertz considering Jeffery’s close relationship with ESPN’s Josina Anderson. Therefore, everybody believes that Jeffery is stirring up this year’s drama as well considering the source again. However, former Eagles defensive end Chris Long doesn’t really believe all that because apparently, he knows something we didn’t know.

Alshon’s not the guy?

Recently, Chris Long discussed the situation on Ryen Russillo’s podcast. That’s when Long revealed that from what he knows, Alshon Jeffery was NOT the source of those reports last season. “They tried to make it an Alshon [Jeffery] thing,” Jeffery said, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia. “A source told me that it wasn’t Alshon last year.”

While Long is unsure of who it is this year, it seems that if somebody was acting as a locker room mole last season to Josina Anderson, chances are they are the same person doing it this season as well. Long also goes against the point the source is trying to make, which is that Carson Wentz is the issue for the Eagles problems this season.

No blame for Carson Wentz

“If you want your team to be successful, you have a man-to-man conversation with the person you think is the problem,” Long says. “And by the way, Carson is not the problem in Philadelphia. He’s just not.” While admitting that Wentz did look rough on Sunday, Chris Long believes that Wentz is far from the problem in Philly, as he’s looked solid in most games this year.

"“They have two more wins if the players catch balls in the Atlanta game and the Detroit game — those are facts. I don’t think there would be this bubbling headline ready to overflow if it weren’t for those drops and some of the injuries. And then [Sunday night], he didn’t play well. Quarterbacks have bad games. There’s no way you can tell me he is not a franchise quarterback. I just don’t believe it. His ceiling is too high, we can’t cherry-pick.”"

Being that Chris Long was once one of the most respected players within the Eagles locker room, his opinion regarding the situation holds a lot of weight. He’s played with Carson Wentz, and he’s played through a season, which had an anonymous source in the locker room tipping off problems. So if anything, this guy knows best. If Chris Long denies Wentz and Jeffery being an issue — then that says a lot more than what fans are currently believing.