The Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, which was unsurprising. During the game, however, Eagles starting quarterback Carson Wentz was benched in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts.
Hurts flashed his potential but also dealt with a lot of the same issues that have plagued Wentz this season: an awful offensive line, receivers who can’t separate, and an offense that just looks broken overall. He threw a touchdown pass, an interception, and was sacked three times.
With the Eagles’ season all but over, many have wondered whether or not the team will continue to start Hurts at quarterback for the rest of the season. Pederson spoke to the media on Monday and was asked several questions about Jalen Hurts, Carson Wentz, the offense, and the team’s overall performance.
Below is the video and the full transcript of Doug Pederson’s press conference.
EAGLES HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
Press Conference Transcript, December 7, 2020
Q. Is there any update as to who will be the starter come next Sunday and if not, will you be weighing who is available up front against the offensive line as one of the factors in your decision? (Chris Franklin)
DOUG PEDERSON: No, I have not made a decision yet, and the offensive line does not weigh into any decisions as to who that might be.
Q. So then what are some of the determining factors in that decision and is there a time you’d like to make that decision by? (Dave Zangaro)
DOUG PEDERSON: I’m not prepared right now to make any statement or decisions on that. I’m still processing a lot of things and going through a lot of things before I make that decision. When I know, you’ll know.
Q. Sure. Sure. I’m not asking what the decision is. But what goes into that decision? (Dave Zangaro)
DOUG PEDERSON: I would like to keep those private, so that’s just between me and me.
Q. If I can follow up on that, though, what are you looking to see from whoever will start this week at practice? (Kristen Rodgers)
DOUG PEDERSON: Again, I’m taking all that into consideration. The big picture is the football team and we’ve got a lot of injury again coming out of this football game. There’s a lot of moving parts again this week. I’ll take all that into consideration moving forward.
Q. Throughout these past five years, you’ve spoken about how you and QB Carson Wentz are married in this together. To what extent do you consider Carson’s success or failure a reflection of you, and how does this affect how you navigate the decision? (Zach Berman)
DOUG PEDERSON: You’re absolutely right. We are married to this. It’s something that I pride myself on and we’re definitely — he and I are definitely in a situation that we’ve got to work ourselves out of. My job is to help him and to help him improve and to get better and to help this football team win.
My job is also to take and look at the big picture, too, and look at the entire football team, right? Those are all things that I’ve got to consider as we move forward.
Q. Communication is the key to any good marriage, Doug. Have you had a conversation with Carson since that game and what kind of message are you stressing with him right now? (Tim McManus)
DOUG PEDERSON: As far as communication goes with any player, I elect to keep those private.
Q. What did you see in the film of QB Jalen Hurts, how did he play? (Jeff McLane)
DOUG PEDERSON: He played okay.
Q. Can you give a little more detail as to how you thought Jalen performed under those circumstances? (Jeff McLane)
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I thought it was the spark that I was hoping for when I made the change. He came in and did some things. One of the things is that obviously he extended some plays with his legs. Made a nice throw to [WR] Jalen Reagor. Was good to see that. And then obviously the throw to [WR] Greg Ward for the touchdown on a scramble. But there are some things that if and when he looks at the film, that we can clean up and he can improve upon.
But I thought it was the spark that got us back in the football game.
Q. Do you think that Carson taking a step back in that second half can do some good, just taking a step back from a situation? (John Clark)
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, I think any time you can maybe look at a situation maybe with calmer eyes, the 30,000-foot perspective, and I think it’s how we all kind of handle the situation, right? And of course, Carson’s a part of this right now and how we all handle the situation. I think we can all learn from and improve. Again, as I said, my job is the best interest of the football team, and that’s what we’ll do moving forward.
Q. Speaking in that context of the best interest of the team, will you be talking to leaders on the team about this situation and the variables involved, or is it something you just will make on your own? Will other coaches be involved in what you decide? (Les Bowen)
DOUG PEDERSON: No, this will be my decision. I don’t feel like I need to communicate with anybody, players, other coaches. I think it’s just, again, it’s obviously my decision, the opportunity that I have moving forward, and it will solely be up to me.
Q. How much does passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Press Taylor weigh into this decision? Is that a conversation you’ll have with him before making this decision, as well? (Mike Kaye)
DOUG PEDERSON: Press and I have a lot of conversations, but I don’t necessarily feel the need to ask him. I think I have — I will definitely think about some of those conversations we’ve had in the past, and all of that, but again, it’s — I don’t need a whole lot of outside influence to make a decision one way or the other.
Q. You said last night when asked about whether or not making the decision to pull Carson earlier, that there had been issues with the whole offense in previous games, whereas this game it seemed to be a little bit more on the quarterback. What were the things that Carson was doing or not doing yesterday that necessitated the change? (Bo Wulf)
DOUG PEDERSON: When you go back and you look at the tape — and listen, it’s hard for me to really — I really don’t want to get into the specifics, right? This is between me, the coaches and the team, right? These are things that I don’t necessarily need to publicly air all our critical mistakes and errors and things that our football team made. There’s enough to go around, right, all three phases.
But at the end of the day, we didn’t get it done, and quite frankly, we had an opportunity, even late in the game to get it done and we didn’t do that.
I’m not going to sit here and point the finger or point blame, especially at the quarterback position because there’s enough to go around.
Q. You’ve been doing this a long time, both as a player playing the position, assistant coach, head coach, so you kind of know what comes along with this type of decision. How difficult was it for you to make that decision in-game? (John McMullen)
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, it’s always difficult, especially at the quarterback position. In-game, when you’re trying to find a play, find an opportunity for anybody to make a play and then it’s not happening, you’ve just got to find that spark and you’ve just got to find that something that maybe can get your offense going. Maybe get your team going and so they are obviously difficult decisions to make. But again, that’s what I was hired to do, to make difficult decisions, and I did one yesterday afternoon, and it got us back in the football game, but it just wasn’t enough.
Q. Do you have any update on the injuries, T Jason Peters, CB Darius Slay, CB Avonte Maddox, anybody else? (Nick Fierro)
DOUG PEDERSON: Avonte Maddox is okay. Slay I think is going to be day-to-day, but should be fine. He came out of it a little bit nicked up.
Jason Peters is still working through his injury. I am waiting on one more report today to come back on him to see where he’s at and his status for this week.
[LB] T.J. Edwards is going to be a little bit limited this week, but optimistic that as the week goes, he’ll get stronger and better and be available.
Q. LB Davion Taylor? (Mike Kaye)
DOUG PEDERSON: Davion Taylor is going to miss some time. He is going to miss some time, and he’s probably the one that’s most significant. But everybody else should be, within reason, should be day-to-day and hopefully available for this game. But Davion is going to miss some time.
Q. You said last week you didn’t have any assurances one way or another about coming back next year or returning next year. So how do you balance between trying to win now with an opportunity that you guys still have in the NFC East versus the priority to get Carson back on track versus seeing what you have in Jalen Hurts? (Rob Maaddi)
DOUG PEDERSON: My focus right now is obviously New Orleans and this week, and that’s all I’m focused on. I’m not focused on the next week, the four games, next month, next season. I’m the head football coach of the Philadelphia Eagles right now, and I expect to get this football team ready to play this week against New Orleans.
I’ll say this, and you can probably ask the guys. The guys are frustrated. The guys are disappointed. We’ve been in a lot of these games here recently. We just haven’t finished very well and it’s something we’ve got to learn upon and be prepared this week for another good football team coming in here.
Q. Speaking of New Orleans, do you feel like by the time you guys start practicing Wednesday, you need to know which quarterback you’re going to be going with as far as getting the bulk of the practice reps? And also, is there any kind of competitive advantage to not revealing the quarterback leading up to this week? (Martin Frank)
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, I do think it’s important that once I make the decision, that whoever that is, yeah, they take the bulk of the reps, right? I mean, that’s how they prepare during the week.
As far as the competitive advantage goes, I feel that — I could probably say that this is going to stay quiet, but it probably won’t, right? It’s probably going to get out and you guys are going to find out and all of that.
As far as a competitive advantage, though, I do feel like the longer you can kind of keep the opponent waiting on a dual-quarterback situation, it could possibly help a little bit. But we’ll see how the week goes. I’m kind of processing this right now, but as soon as I make a decision, I’ll probably let you know sooner than later.
Q. This decision seems like it’s a pretty big one, not only for the rest of the year but maybe beyond. Why shoulder that load all by yourself? Why not lean on some others for some advice or opinions or consult? (Ed Kracz)
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, one, obviously I’ve been through it personally as player, so I’ve kind of experienced that from a player’s perspective and the feedback I got from obviously Coach Reid [former Eagles head coach and current Chiefs head coach Andy Reid] at the time, so I can lean on that experience. Really, I look at — I just don’t want to be — I don’t necessarily want to be swayed by others’ opinions, because sometimes that can cloud judgment, right? And even sometimes as a play caller, you go with your gut. You see things in-game and you make decisions in-game that hopefully benefit the football team. Kind of with that being said, I feel like that’s the right thing to do in this situation.
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Mike Maher is the editor and publisher of The Birds Blitz. Follow him on Twitter @mikeMaher and @TheBirdsBlitz and check out his archive for all of his latest stories about the Eagles and the NFL.
