If you’re wondering how things got dysfunctional with the Eagles during the 2020 NFL season, it looks like things got so bad that using the word “dysfunctional” may be underestimating what happened in Philadelphia in the past few months.
To get an idea of how bad things got, it seems that at one point Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson went over two months without speaking. It may be normal to give someone silent treatment at school, but it is definitely not normal in the NFL, especially when it is happening between the head coach and the starting quarterback, but that’s exactly how things happen in Philadelphia, according to ESPN Adam Schefter.
During a 97.5 interview with Fanatic on Friday, Schefter said that Wentz and Pederson did not speak for at least eight weeks during the regular season.
“A lot of things went wrong,” said Schefter when asked about the drama in Philadelphia. “We have the team that is preparing Jalen Hurts. We have Carson feeling rejected for that. We have the team trying to reassure him. Carson will not get over it. We have Carson fighting. We have Carson and Doug without speaking for weeks on end during the season in that the head coach and the quarterback don’t talk for eight, nine, ten weeks. “
One thing Schefter did not mention was how this silent treatment worked. It is possible that they were talking on the day of the game, but did not talk during training during the week. It is also possible that the treatment of silence started in November and then became serious after Wentz was assigned to Hurts in week 13. Anyway, it is absolutely crazy that this happened and almost unprecedented, and now it also makes more sense because they’re both no longer in Philadelphia.
On the other hand, Wentz was not only fighting with the coach, but apparently losing popularity in the Eagles locker room. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported on Friday that Wentz “was falling out of favor with the locker room, was unable to connect with a number of players and was acting more in self-interest than what would be expected of a franchise quarterback. and leader. “
It appears that most of Wentz’s distress stemmed from the Eagles’ decision to select Hurts in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. After watching Wentz lose eight games of the regular season – and six games of the playoff – due to injury over three seasons (2017-19), the Eagles secured draft insurance on Hurts in a move that raised some eyebrows around the turns on. Almost eight months after the draft, things hit rock bottom for Wentz after he was cast for Hurts after a 3-8-1 start in 2020.
Clearly, Wentz did not take the bank well, which probably led to his contempt for Pederson.
La Canfora wrote in December that a Wentz deal was coming after the defender was rejected. Despite the fact that the writing was on the wall, Pederson was insisting until January 4 that all was well with Wentz and that the two would be returning to Philadelphia for the 2021 season.
A week after making that statement, Pederson was fired, and less than six weeks later, Wentz was also dispatched from Philadelphia in a trade that sent him to Indianapolis. The Eagles were clearly desperate to get rid of their former full-back, which is why they were willing to switch him, although that meant facing the biggest capitalization hit in NFL history ($ 33.8 million).