One of Carson Wentz’s former teammates believes the Eagles were too easy on the quarterback season in an effort to protect his ego.
Malcolm Jenkins played four seasons with Wentz in Philadelphia before spending last year with the Saints, but he kept an eye on Philadelphia and Wentz’s terrible season.
“As a teammate and friend of Carson, I think it always starts with performance, and he hasn’t performed to meet everyone’s expectations for him,” said Jenkins.help Friday on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “I don’t think he would say he lived up to his own expectations, but some of the other issues I felt when I was in the locker room were that there was just too much leeway, and it didn’t make him any better. player.”
Wentz played badly enough that he sat on the bench in favor of second-round Jalen Hurts, who fueled the team. Still, the Eagles finished 4-11-1 and head coach Doug Pederson was fired after the season.
Wentz’s status is unclear in the off-season as he still has a guarantee of about $ 70 million on his contract.
As poor as Wentz played, Jenkins – who won Super Bowls in Philadelphia and New Orleans – also blamed the Eagles coaching staff.
“I don’t think they did him a favor by trying … to protect his ego or really protect him as a player, unlike – like any other player – by keeping it performance oriented and being real about what he needed to improve, “said Jenkins.” But also to adapt to put him in places that could make him successful. That’s a little bit about the coaching staff and a little bit about the player. “
The Eagles recently hired Nick Sirianni to replace Pederson and Sirianni said during his introductory press conference he “can’t answer” whether Wentz will stay with the Eagles.
“What we need to do is evaluate the whole selection,” said Sirianni. “We have two quarterbacks in Carson Wentz and Jalen Hurts who are first-class quarterbacks. Many teams don’t have one. So just really excited to work with them. Nick Foles did the same in 2017/18, leading the Eagles to a Super Bowl championship
Jenkins noted that Hurts was able to “ignite a little bit of juice in the team – and that’s not the first time that has happened from a backup quarterback, clearly in Philly – so it’s one of those things. something has to change. Whether you put that task on the coaching staff or you put that task on the players out there, but I mean, there is clearly going to be a lot of work to be done there. “