‘Surprised’ by QB switch, Kelce defends QB Sudfeld
The best years of his long career largely in the rearview mirror, Eagles center Jason Kelce still has much to give.
The Haverford resident stuck his neck out for head coach Doug Pederson and teammate Nate Sudfeld in an Instagram post, the latter two skewered by criticism following the controversial season-ending loss to the Washington Football Team.
Kelce denied that Eagles players became confrontational when Pederson, the team trailing by just three points, benched rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts to play Sudfeld in the fourth quarter of a 20-14 loss.
That shocked everybody on the team, according to Eagles running back Miles Sanders, because the theme had been to finish strong, given serious playoff implications for the WFT and the New York Giants.
A WFT win would clinch the NFC East and a playoff berth. A loss and the Giants would be the division champs. A loss would secure the sixth pick in the draft for the Eagles. A victory meant they would pick ninth.
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crew, in particular analyst Cris Collinsworth, was stunned. Social media lit up with Giants players critical of the Eagles. TV cameras showed Hurts on the sideline mouthing “it’s not right.” Wednesday marked the third straight day of debate.
“I understand the optics of how it looked,” Kelce wrote. “I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little surprised given the circumstances that the move happened when it did. But every one of us did our best, and all of us believe we can win with Nate Sudfeld.
“It was a difficult situation to be put into, especially when you have a 10year veteran center who doesn’t snap the ball to you accurately on your second drive of the game. I know we can win games with Nate, because I know Suddy can play. It didn’t work out Sunday, but as always, that’s not just on him.”
Kelce wasn’t on the sideline when the offense was on the field. Defensive players couldn’t have been happy as they had Washington right where they wanted it.
Kelce made no mention in the post of the strong remarks he made weeks ago about playing to win. The Eagles looked like they were tanking in the finale, rather than developing Sudfeld, who hadn’t played all season and almost certainly won’t be back.
Kelce actually praised Pederson for refusing to tank in a rant that lasted several minutes.
“I think, at all times in the NFL, the focus should be winning the football game,” Kelce said. “Nothing else takes precedence. No player evaluation, no amount of curiosity from anybody within the organization. Everything is focused in this league, in my opinion, on winning games. You see a lot of losing teams sustain losses for a number of years when they have bad cultures. They have cultures where you don’t try to win every week and you’re. ‘What are we going to do in the draft? What are we going to do in free agency? What are we going to do over here?’”
What the Eagles did strays so far from that thinking that it ignited accusations that the organization should be punished for violating the game’s integrity.
Popular as it was to criticize the Giants for their angst by demanding they win more than six games to get into the playoffs, there was another reality that fans may not understand — the point spread. Substituting a quarterback who hadn’t played for one who just rushed for two touchdowns is another bad optic.
Kelce, 33, didn’t mention in his post if he’d be returning for an 11th season. Though he finished the campaign relatively healthy, the Eagles are firmly in rebuilding mode.
Quarterback Carson Wentz has a relationship with the Eagles that is “fractured beyond repair,” according to an ESPN report, and wants out. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has stepped away for a year. Pederson appears to be back ... at least he did before insisting there was no ulterior motive for switching quarterbacks.
The fallout from Pederson’s action won’t be going away for a while. Now, you can pretty much lump them in with the 76ers for the days of Sam Hinkie and The Process, which was to lose to improve draft positioning year after year,.
“You know, in football — this isn’t basketball,” Kelce said weeks ago during his rant. “One draft pick isn’t going to make us a Super Bowl champion. It might be a big start to a Super Bowl championship but it’s always going to be about the team. That’s the greatest thing about this sport. Culture, and the way guys fight, the way guys go to prepare and the way guys go about their business is a huge reason for success in this league and in this sport.
So, nothing takes precedence over trying to win a football game. I don’t care who you’re trying to evaluate. I don’t care if you’ve lost every game, you’re 0-15 and it’s the last one you got. Everything is about winning in this league.”
Hurts, meanwhile, has no choice but to roll with what Pederson does. At least for now. He probably should be 2-2 as a starter, not 1-3 due to the finale loss. A victory in that game would have generated momentum, just as Donovan McNabb winning the last two starts of the 1999 season despite an injured knee spring-boarded him to a sensational 2000.
Hurts was asked what the next step in his development would be.
“It goes back to identity,” Hurts said. “Creating that identity for who we are and what we want to be. Stand true to it. Going out there and attacking people and making them stop us and fear us. It takes time. Everybody around here is fired up and ready to work. That’s all I have on my mind. I might drive myself crazy this offseason thinking about it. But it ain’t nothing that we can’t overcome.
“We’ll be better because of this year. We’ll be better from all of these different experiences we’ve had. The sun will shine real soon.”
It’s always sunny in Philadelphia. At least until Pederson’s quarterback switch.