Wentz in Week 1 ranks at top of Pederson’s best calls of the year

It’s been a rough season for Doug Pederson, who, with a 6-9 record is trying to avoid becoming just the second head coach to lead the Eagles to double-figures losses in, oh. a dozen seasons. Pederson has made some great decisions and some not so great choices in this, his first year as The Man. It’s not been easy with limited power. Pederson has the final say on who plays, not on who the football people give him to play. The latter is the domain of football executive Howie Roseman.

In essence, Pederson has had to base his head coaching decisions on what he has to work with. And it was eye-opening recently to hear one of the team leaders, safety Malcolm Jenkins, hail the job rookie quarterback Carson Wentz did despite operating with less than stellar resources.

“Definitely he’s done a lot with not that much,” Jenkins said. “And we’re going to need some help at some positions. But as you upgrade I think it’s going to make it that much better.”

Wentz obviously factors into Pederson’s five best and five worst decisions of 2016 with the Eagles.

One that didn’t make the list was the way Pederson managed the locker room, including but not limited to the way he dealt with the national anthem protests gripping the league in September. Pederson gave his players the right to express themselves. While Jenkins raised his fist during the anthem to protest, there was no pressure to make teammates follow. That’s a player’s coach. with a sense of urgency he hadn’t had and became a tradable commodity, landing the Birds a first-round pick. A lot of coaches would have screwed that up and had to deal with a divisive controversy. Benching Nelson Agholor: We think Nelson should have been released but that’s not Pederson’s call. The coach benched him. And he’s been better. Not great, but better, since returning from the inactive list. He just might be tradable after the season. Telling the media “not everybody” played hard against the Bengals: We wondered if he’d gone off the deep end saying that. It was a week of soul-searching for players who, rightly or not, found themselves defending their efforts. Everyone got the message because we since haven’t seen any quit in the Birds. Naming Carson Wentz the starting quarterback for the opener: Veteran Chase Daniel deserved a start or two considering how Wentz had played very little in the preseason. Pederson, however, did everyone a favor by disposing of the “when should he start” specualtion. Except for September, when Wentz was the NFC rookie of the month, it hasn’t always been pretty. But this Sunday he’ll become the first Eagle quarterback to start all 16 games since Donovan McNabb in 2008.

JEFF HAYNES — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Eagles head coach Doug Pederson had his ups and downs this season, but his decision to make Carson Wentz the starter from Day 1 is the best one he made all season, and will have the longest effect on the franchise.