The Eagles using a second-round pick on Jalen Hurts raised eyebrows last year, and it ended up being a precursor to the end of an era.
While other factors contributed to the five-year Doug Pederson–Carson Wentz run abruptly ending, the since-fired head coach said the Hurts move was not part of a plan to develop Wentz’s heir apparent. It is rather remarkable that the Eagles taking Hurts 53rd overall preceded such swift fallout, considering the Alabama/Oklahoma product’s status as Philly’s long-term starter remains uncertain. But less than a year after the pick, Pederson is unemployed and Wentz is in Indianapolis.
“You go into drafts and you go into each year looking for quarterbacks,” Pederson said during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio (via NFL.com). “And we continued to look for quarterbacks, and that’s always something that will never change. We won a Super Bowl with our backup quarterback. And we’ve had to play with our backups a couple of times in Philadelphia.
“So we did that a year ago and brought in Jalen Hurts — not to undermine Carson Wentz, not to do anything to take away his job or anything because Carson was our starter. He was the franchise and all that moving forward. But (we wanted) someone that could come in and could be the backup and learn how to play the NFL game — bring his talent to the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Pederson ended up benching Wentz in early December, following a rough stretch for the former No. 2 overall pick. A rash of injuries affected both the Eagles’ offensive line and their receiving corps, and Wentz’s play predictably worsened. The benching led to a fracture between Wentz and Pederson.
The Eagles then parted ways with both, ushering in a Hurts-Nick Sirianni pairing — barely a year after the team narrowly lost a wild-card game. Though the Eagles were believed to be interviewing candidates with an eye on jump-starting Wentz, making an ex-Frank Reich lieutenant a logical option, the franchise quickly went in a different direction.
“And really as the season began, things just started to kind of I guess spiral out of control,” Pederson said. “Injuries began to set in. We weren’t playing very well. Turnovers offensively, just a number of things, penalties, more injuries compounded problems, and it just became harder and harder as the year wore on.
“… It’s just unfortunate for me because I was hoping to really have an opportunity to fix the issues that we had and kind of get everything back on track — whether it was going to be this year or the next year. And, obviously, that didn’t happen.”
Pederson, 53, said he will attempt to land a second head coaching job. He discussed Seattle’s offensive coordinator position, but that was the Super Bowl-winning HC’s only known link to a 2021 gig. The Eagles added a 2022 first-round pick in trading down with the Dolphins this year. Barring an injury that prevents Wentz from taking 75% of Indy’s 2021 snaps, the team is in line to collect another from the Colts in the Wentz trade. This would give Philly a good opportunity to draft Wentz’s true successor, if Hurts fares poorly this season.
It is unclear how well Hurts will need to play to prevent the Eagles from entertaining another first-round quarterback pick, but given that he was not drafted with a QB1 role in mind, Philly figures to be linked to 2022 QB prospects.
Pederson gave a pretty honest answer, and it sounds like he still had the expectation of being able to “fix” everything next year. I see and can understand what he is saying, and I do not believe that he is making excuses or lying about any of it. That said, he deserves a good bit of blame as well for how the team found itself under-prepared often times and for lackluster playcalling offensively. I know the injuries really hit Philly very hard and in meaningful ways, but Pederson’s gameplanning and team management seemed, from the outside, to have been lackluster.
Maybe it was the rift between him and Roseman and/or the rift between him and Wentz, but the number of disgruntled players and staff seemed pretty high in Philly. In addition to Wentz, I would also count Ertz and Alston Jeffrey, and even Jim Schwartz who apparently wanted to take time off from football after last season. Kelce seemed disgruntled as well by season’s end.
I don’t want to put all of that on Pederson, given how difficult the season was and the likelihood that team management overall from the top down probably played some role in everything, but it was telling that so few Eagles players seemed to be enthusiastic about playing. Maybe it’s just me, but the mood in Philly seemed flat at best. That’s not all on the coach, but part of his job is to instill some kind of competitiveness and team identity amongst his players. It didn’t seem like Pederson succeeded, even if it may not have been all his fault.
There seemed to be a lot of toxicity in the Eagles organization last year. It didn’t start with Pederson – it seemed to start from the top with Lurie and Roseman.
Like I said, I don’t hold Pederson entirely accountable on his own. But at the very least, if he wasn’t responsible for it, he did not seem to elevate the team either. Roseman and Lurie very well may have contributed or even began it, but they don’t see the players every day. Pederson did. At worst, he contributed, at best, he did not motivate his team to get past any of it and focus on the field.
I’m sorry, but if you’re so sensitive after signing a $100M+ deal for the team to draft a 2nd round QB pick, you’re simply mentally weak.
Wentz should have been more concerned at how Howie was ignoring problems on the OL than another QB being drafted.
His situation I think was similar to Rodgers’. As a fan, instead of worrying whether my QB was “mentally weak”, i would wonder why my franchise with a depleted roster is drafting another quarterback in the second round.
And that shows you how dumb they were for giving up over $100mil and then drafting a backup QB that high and ignoring the many holes across the roster that needed immediate attention.
Did he address his absurd decision to yank Hurts and put in Nate Sudfield in the last game of the season? One of the more bizarre moves I’ve ever seen. I’m biased because I’m a Giants fan and needed WFT to lose that game, but that was such a baffling move if you’re trying to move forward with Hurts as your #1.
no because it was a nothingburger
@Darkside830: Not really. It was baffling and definitely contributed to him getting fired. Here he is benching the QB he just drafted, who is supposed to be the starter going forward, in a close division game with the chance to win it late, which messes with Hurts’ confidence and continuity. And there was no upside to the move unless he really, really wanted to see what Sudfield could do, in which case, why not just start Sudfield to begin the game? But then there’s also the fact that Sudfield is terrible and instantly looked overmatched.
Yeah that was a head scratcher. There are only two possibilities to me: 1) Pederson wanted to see what Sudfeld had in game time to evaluate for next year, as that game was not impactful standings-wise, or 2) he did it to spite management for trying to him what to do as a coach. Neither is a particularly strong reason in my mind, but I think the first is more of a good reason. It’s hard to get backup QBs quality reps, but the team was all around a mess and it just made it worse. It felt like conceding the game, even if Hurts wasn’t playing extremely well himself. Players don’t want to feel like the team is not trying to win.
Totally agree with all of this, particularly #2. It struck me as weirdly spiteful, too.
1) Putting Sudfeld in was decided long in advance. Guy paid his dues and was promised some airtime that game out of loyalty. Moves like that go a long way to the players.
2) Hurts was looking horrible and should’ve been yanked anyway. He was 7-20 for 72 yards & INT; was gifted the ball in the red zone compliments of the D and came away with 0 points.
3) when you’re 6-10 and pissed at an arch rival for not helping you stumble into the playoffs you ought to channel that anger elsewhere, like at yourself.
Fair points. I heard that Sudfeld wasn’t planned to play in advance though? Was that verified, or somebody spouting off?
Not true, Doug made that decision prior to Gametime.
“Pederson is also considering not dressing quarterback Carson Wentz and if current starter Jalen Hurts and the Eagles were to struggle, play third-stringer Nate Sudfeld in the second half, NFL sources said.”
Really really hope they stay with Hurts.
Kids got really high upside, works his butt off, has an addictive charisma and energy. I thought that with Pederson out, Wentz out, hopefully Ertz out and then Smith in we would be going about building a new culture.
Hurts, Sanders, Johnson, Smith, Reagor, JJAW and Goedert. All talents taken within the first 2 rounds over the last 3 years.
Is Roseman still there? I think you make a good point about culture, and from the outside it seemed like too many people were rowing in different directions in Philly for the ship to go anywhere. Everybody in upper management should really be gone though in order to wipe the slate clean.
If Hurts plays well this season they’ll be ok, if he doesn’t they’ll draft high even to be in a position chase that franchise QB in next years draft.