Philadelphia Eagles: Random notes on Doug Pederson, Carson Wentz

Let’s talk about some Philadelphia Eagles football for a few seconds.

Another week has gone by, and the Monday following a Week 11 loss is a grey one as the  Philadelphia Eagles dropped a very winnable game by a score of 22-17 to the Cleveland Browns. What’s insane is the Birds still lead the NFC East with a 3-6-1 record. Despite that, there are still a lot of issues with this football team, most of which are recurring.

Let’s start with the most glaring problem, the decline of Carson Wentz. On April 29th of 2019, the Eagles gave Wentz a four-year, $128 million extension. This season, he hasn’t lived up to his side of the deal. Wentz seems to struggle with even the most basic skills needed to play the quarterback position, his inability to make his reads being one of them.

Carson Wentz should have mastered this Philadelphia Eagles offense by now.

Even though the game has long been over, Wentz’s miss of a wide-open Jalen Reagor early in the second quarter is still the subject of some debate. Some say he should have thrown the ball to Reagor. Others say he shouldn’t have. As you all know, 11 attempted a pass to Miles Sanders instead. That pass was picked off by Sione Takitaki and returned for the game’s first touchdown.

Wentz’s flaws were on display all season long. As usual, he missed throws and held onto the football too long as he has done all season long. Despite Myles Garrett’s absence, the Browns were able to sack Wentz four times, one of which resulted in a safety. That isn’t all on the offensive line.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach has an ego problem.

In his postgame press conference following Week 11’s game, Doug Pederson was asked if he ever considered benching Wentz during another pathetic performance by his quarterback, and Pederson said no.

Philly’s head coach has never been accused of not sticking up for his team or his signal-caller, which is admirable but to totally dismiss the idea that Wentz may need to sit is asinine. Sometimes, it feels as though Pederson’s ego is the size of Philadelphia. There’s also no evidence that Jalen Hurts couldn’t do as well as Wentz is doing. He definitely couldn’t do any worse.

Doug Pederson will forever be the first coach to bring a Super Bowl to the City of Brotherly Love, but it is becoming more and more evident that something is lacking with his football team. At a minimum, Pederson needs to hire an OC. The offensive line needs to get younger (they’re aging quickly).

Lane Johnson can’t stay healthy. Jason Peters has nothing left to give, and there’s a long journey ahead. Four of the Eagles’ next four games are against legitimate playoff contenders. If something doesn’t change immediately, this team won’t win another game. That’s something no Birds fan wants to see.