ut san diego matthew hall column on william t. sherman

Wentz was benched in a Week 13 loss to the Packers, after posting a 57.4 passer rating through three and a half quarters, and didn’t play another snap for the Eagles after that. And by then, Pederson and Wentz’s relationship-remember, Pederson had been the good cop-was fracturing. Hurts was elevated to backup in Week 2, and put on the field in a Wildcat package, which only led to Wentz asking more questions, since he ran the same zone-read concepts Hurts was running both at North Dakota State and in his early days as a pro. Then, the season played out and, with an aging and injured offense around him, Wentz cratered. And, as I understand it, the pick was taken by him, right or wrong, as a message that he might not be quite as secure as he thought he was when he signed his four-year, $134 million extension a year earlier. The Eagles took Hurts 53rd in April, a move that completely blindsided Wentz. But, again, when the quarterback’s play doesn’t justify it, that’s a problem-and it was in this case. This stuff, by the way, isn’t totally uncommon with star quarterbacks.

He wanted the why from coaches when they were telling him what to do. If teammates weren’t working to his standard, that could be an issue. Wentz’s Type A personality was part of the equation too.As a result, perception in the building grew that the Eagles were coddling him, and that Wentz couldn’t handle hard coaching. He and Wentz clashed and Groh was fired as a result, while Press Taylor, who Wentz was close with, ascended. After Reich left for Indy and DeFilippo for Minnesota post-Super Bowl, the Eagles promoted Mike Groh to OC, and Groh assumed the bad cop role. When Wentz was at his best, he had a good cop (Pederson), medium cop (Reich) and bad cop (ex-QBs coach John DeFilippo) working with him.Second, saddling a new coach with all that would come with an attempt to reestablish Wentz as the face of the franchise would be a tough ask. In doing so, Philly gained clarity on a couple things.įirst, by interviewing a slew of candidates, the Eagles’ brass got outside affirmation that they had two quarterbacks, both Wentz and Hurts, who NFL people thought they could potentially win with.

Meanwhile, the Eagles were going through their divorce from Pederson and starting up a new coaching search.

Ut san diego matthew hall column on william t. sherman