Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Pederson keeps Falcons guessing
No need for Eagles coach to announce Week 1 starter
PHILADELPHIA » Doug Pederson doesn’t hedge. He doesn’t delay. He will never be timid.
Fourth down? Go for it. Pass to the quarterback? Throw it, and if necessary, throw it in the Super Bowl. Stand up, make a decision, live with it. And in the end, celebrate.
Doug Pederson makes decisions, marches in parades, then writes books about it all, hoping to spread motivation. That’s what has transformed him from the punchline ex-quarterback who once took too much of Donovan McNabb’s playing time to eternal Philadelphia fame.
So why is it, anyway, that he and his coaches are so hesitant to pick a quarterback?
Will it be Carson Wentz on Opening Night, Sept. 6, against Atlanta? Or will it be Nick Foles? And who is receiving the bulk of the firstteam reps in practice?
“It’s 50-50,” offensive coordinator Mike Groh said. “So those guys are splitting the reps.”
It’s 50-50, not 51-49, nowhere near 70-30, far from 100 percent. And that’s how it is going to be, maybe up to that regular-season kickoff. It may be even later than that, should the Eagles win the toss, defer, and throw their defense on the field first.
The Eagles are playing this one like the way they conduct most of their business: Inside locked gates, behind fences and trees, with everything but masking tape over their mouths.
“I think it’s good to see Carson in there,” Groh said. “And it’s good for Nick to be able to share those responsi
bilities right now too.” Both. So that’s their game-within-a-game. And like most plays Pederson concocts, it makes sense. The Eagles are in a rare position to win an edge, if only a slight one, in preparation for a September game that will have immense January meaning, given the projected dynamics of the NFC.
What other team has a quarterback who might have been the regular-season MVP if not for a lateseason injury, and as an alternative, has the MVP of the Super Bowl? So why shouldn’t Pederson keep the Falcons guessing for a while? Why shouldn’t he tie up multiple Dan Quinn assistant coaches, making one break down Wentz film, another tapping out a Foles scouting report?
If Wentz is ready, he’ll start. That’s because he has said it is his preference, while Foles has hinted that he would be just as content to return to clipboard caddying. And Wentz is ready. At least, so says the Eagles’ recent behavior.
Training camp was over, the fans shooed out of the NewsControl Compound,
the business part of the offseason about to grow serious. As per house rules, even the press would no longer be welcome at practice, save for a few worthless early moments for TV cameras to shoot more video of pro athletes stretching. And it was then, and only then, that magically Wentz was cleared for full 11-on-11 football work, roughly eight months after a season-ending, career-threatening knee injury.
Imagine the medical odds of that good fortune. Wow. At the very moment that the Eagles could return to private preparation for their Night at the Museum II parade, their franchise quarterback was ready for full workouts. As quarterback coincidences go, that one is as tough to believe as the Patriots degassing their footballs by accident.
Technically, the Eagles have indicated their preference for Wentz to be their starter, both for that Atlanta game and the 15 dozen to follow. He’s their franchise player, and all that stuff. Yet they are not planning to use him in the preseason. Foles will start Thursday in Cleveland in Preseason Week 3, customarily the closest thing any NFL team has
to a reasonable dress rehearsal.
“It’s the doctors’ decision,” Wentz said the other day. “I’m going to trust what they say. And there’s a lot of them, a lot of medical brains in there who will try to make the decision. I know how I feel and where I’m at with it. It will ultimately be their decision and a coaching decision.”
Something new about that? When wasn’t naming a starting quarterback a coaching decision?
Foles deserves the Opening Night start and the accompanying roar from the Linc crowd during pregame intros. Pederson should have made that announcement during OTAs and lived with any criticism. But when he didn’t, his plan was revealed: Get Wentz ready. And since he is not fully admitting to that plot, it follows that it is because he is keeping the Falcons wondering.
“He’s doing well,” Pederson said of Wentz Tuesday. “He’s doing well. He’s moving well. He’s making good decisions, throwing the ball extremely well. We talked about his arm the other day being live and fresh. He’s doing the right things with his rehab and we have been excited with the stage that
he’s in.”
Even if he were at full health, the Eagles would have used Wentz in the preseason only as a courtesy to those forking over the TV riches. Maybe he would have played a little Thursday, just for timing. But he doesn’t need to be reinjured in a Grapefruit League game. So the Eagles will shield him for as long as possible and leak out reports of his excellence at their own pace.
It’s not Pederson’s first back-door play, and it won’t be his last. He just released a book entitled “Fearless”. He doesn’t hedge. He knows what he’s doing, and what he expects as a result. Wentz is playing 11-on-11 football in private. He would be in a red, hands-off shirt. But all quarterbacks, healthy and recovering, old and young, first-team and second, receive that treatment.
And if Wentz is practicing, he’s playing if he remains healthy. Either that, or for the first time, Doug Pederson truly is undecided about a football matter.