Eagles leader or just a quarterback?
It’s time for Carson Wentz to become unquestioned Eagles leader. Does he have the right stuff?
Total team leadership, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz stated Thursday, is an evolutionary process. You don’t just come in and take over.
“Obviously as a quarterback you’re always thrust into leadership,” he told reporters Thursday. “But I think the vocal side of that leadership role comes with just time.”
This is especially true for young quarterbacks who are never the most experienced or accomplished players in their position group’s meeting room. That has been the case for Wentz since being taken with the No. 2 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
No longer. His backups, Chase Daniel, Nick Foles and Josh McCown, are all gone.
What’s more, so is the team’s elder statesman, Malcolm Jenkins. And wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, widely perceived to be a source of anonymous criticism of Wentz since the 2018 season, is on the physically unable to perform list now, perhaps on his way to be gone as well.
Meanwhile, the Eagles continue to build their offense around Wentz with younger receivers, running backs, tight ends and even offensive linemen.
Which makes now the time for Wentz to stop holding back and take the reins, for better or worse.
And yet he continues to hold back, perhaps uncertain of himself or his teammates or wary of more anonymous criticism that originally flowed from a scathing Philly Voice article in January 2019. Wentz even later admitted to a secret gathering of reporters, hand-picked by his agent and the team’s overprotective media relations staff, that some of the criticisms were true and that he needed to work on some things.
The story mentions an unnamed teammate who verbally attacked him for not being a team guy.
That player is gone too, a source told The Morning Call.
Even the changes the Eagles made to the coaching staff, especially eliminating offensive coordinator Mike
Groh, who was thought to be bullied at times by Wentz, should promote the concept of this being his team.
“For me, this is going into my fifth year, which still seems crazy to say it’s my fifth year,” Wentz said. “Definitely feel like a veteran now. But … those things kind of just come, I think, with age and with experience.
“… You lose a guy like Malcolm, who was very, very much a big voice for our team in the locker room and, you know, everyone had a lot of respect for him. So I know there’ll be a lot of guys that are very passionate about a lot of different things and are able to articulate and be the Eagles and be who we are and represent that. So I look forward to being one of those guys as well.”
Now is the time for Wentz to start doing more than just “being one of those guys.”
Now is the time to assume full command.
Damn the criticisms. Full speed ahead.
Wentz also should consider shedding the protection and the interference run by staffers and be more accessible to the media.
He has a chance now for the first time in his career to nurture a quarterback room as the most experienced and accomplished performer.
And while it’s true that almost every starting offensive lineman is older and has been with the team at least as long as Wentz, he seems to have their support.
Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce have been outspoken in their support. Ditto for tight end Zach Ertz, an eight-year veteran who is perhaps Wentz’s best friend on the team.
Wentz needs to take over leadership of this team as much as the team needs him to take it over.
There’s no reason for Wentz’s voice and actions not to be the strongest on a team that continues to generate publicity that isn’t always positive — such as DeSean Jackson’s social media posts or Johnson’s ill-advised decision to hold a mask- and social distance-free offensive line masterminds summit in midJuly in a COVID-19 hot zone in Frisco, Texas.
What former Eagles coach Andy Reid used to say to start the questions at each of his news conferences, we say to Wentz now: “Time’s yours.”