NFL | Ho-hum, Eagles plan to keep Wentz sidelined in 2016

First-round draft pick Carson Wentz will be wearing the red jersey all year if Eagles coach Doug Pederson has things go as he hopes.

by Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

Much ado about nothing.

So the kid will sit for a year, according to the coach. Probably.

Gets me about as fired up as does some forced, faux rivalry such as, say, oh, the Phillies against the Mets – historically two of the worst organizations in pro sports who have never faced each other in a postseason, who, maybe, MAYBE, have been good, legit good, at the same time a handful of years in their collective playing days and who, thanks to the gods’ apparent affinity for an athletic caste system, seem forever stuck in the shadows of the latter’s New York City neighbor and Major League Baseball’s signature franchise, the Yankees.

But enough about the baseless fantasies of a mostly under-40s crowd, spiced up a bit by sports talk show hosts always in need of a topic, all long on attention deficit-fueled bluster and short on reference-fueled fact, we got problems here. Real problems.

Doug Pederson met with the Philly media and, gulp, stated what most Eagles fans had feared … that newly drafted savior Carson Wentz likely would be encased in bubble wrap for the 2016 NFL season. Well, maybe.

Yawn …

Uhhh, pardon me. This is cause for concern?

Not for nothing, but didn’t exactly hear the new man in charge proclaim this a cemented-in-stone decision. He noted that, “typically, the third quarterback is down,” and inferred that if the season were to start today Wentz would be deactivated because, at this point, he stands behind starter Sam Bradford and backup Chase Daniel in the team’s projected QB pecking order.

Considering that training camp is more than a week away, with the season set to begin five weeks after that commences, it might be a good idea to give Pederson and Co. some leeway on any comments.

In short, it’s a fluid operation right now. Gotta allow for some things to shake out a bit before any words can be taken as gospel.

Frankly, with Bradford’s lengthy injury chart and Daniel’s limited track record, it seems unlikely that Pederson would be able to follow such protocol no matter how much he may want to …

He has shared his “ideal” scenario: keep the kid safe for a season, coach him up, get him reps and confidence in practice, have him learn the pro game from the veterans and just from being around it without actually having to be involved in it, and then ease him into things in 2017.

Sounds pretty similar to the preferred route for himself as a first-time head coach above the high-school level.
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The idea that either would be able to avoid having their feet held to the fire throughout the upcoming fall, though, is as much of a pipe dream as the team selecting a virtual unknown from a “lesser than primetime”-level college who has been untested with the No. 2 pick, mortgaging much of its immediate future in the process, and expecting him to satisfy a championship-starved fan base once he does get in there.

Donovan McNabb, your pedestal remains in place. Safe and sound. Probably for a long time.
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At least until Wentz throws a touchdown pass in a playoff game … or the Phillies and Mets actually compete against each other in one.

This is cause for concern? Not for nothing, but didn’t exactly hear the new man in charge proclaim this a cemented-in-stone decision. He noted that, “typically, the third quarterback is down,” and inferred that if the season were to start today Wentz would be deactivated because, at this point, he stands behind starter Sam Bradford and backup Chase Daniel in the team’s projected QB pecking order. Considering that training camp is more than a week away, with the season set to begin five weeks after that commences, it might be a good idea to give Pederson and Co. some leeway on any comments... Frankly, with Bradford’s lengthy injury chart and Daniel’s limited track record, it seems unlikely that Pederson would be able to follow such protocol no matter how much he may want to …