“If you get to that spot where you don’t start him or you bench him, I think you’re sending the wrong message to your football team that this season is over, and that’s a bad message,”
EAGLES Head Coach Doug Pederson said that when asked about benching QB Carson Wentz on Sunday November 22nd. Just 14 days later, he was benching Wentz for rookie QB Jalen Hurts.
If we’re taking Pederson at the words that he said, then the Eagles 2020 season is over. This deprioritizes winning, and makes it seem as if we’re tanking without outright saying that we are. Save Carson some wear and tear, put out the rookie, and dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt.
The problem is, Four Things is all about how to best go about pursuing the win. So how do we win when it no longer is the real mission?
Are we chasing a draft spot? Is the goal for Doug to prove that Wentz was holding him back? Is the goal make the fans so disgusted, that they’re okay with General Manager Howie Roseman, gutting the team?
Personally, I think it’s the last one. It totally would explain the Eagles drafting Hurts, instead of getting a CB (since the team had little confidence in CB Sidney Jones), or a DE (with DE Brandon Graham being old and pricey). What’s more, it explains why we’d Drafted WR Jalen Reagor and not Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk or LB Kenneth Murray. It also explains why Hurts over S Jeremy Chinn.
If Doug was already starting out 2020 on a warm seat, then Roseman would be hella reluctant to draft a bunch of scheme specific studs, for a coaching staff which might be on its way out.
Reagor played all the WR spots in college. Hurts wasn’t going to be a starter in 2020. Neither man would be married to an identity, if the whole team needed to change. Perhap Aiyuk also had that flexibility, but all the other guys on the prior list, would have had to be untaught everything he knew about being an NFL player, before starting to reconstruct him. Reagor and Hurts are still lumps of clay.
SO! With “winning” this week being defined as disappointing YOU the fan, here are the Four Things that Howie needs this week:
1) Lose the game: A win keeps us in the hunt for the East, whereas a loss (coupled with a win by No Frills, or the giants) basically equates to a mercy killing for our season.
2) Don’t bench Hurts: No matter how bad he looks, benching Hurts would be DISASTROUS for this franchise. It would serve to de-legitimize the position from top to bottom. Right now, this can still be written off as a slump that Wentz needs a break from. Swapping QB’s in and out makes it look like there is no deep confidence in anybody. It would only be worse if Wentz comes in and saves the day.
3) Give up 35 points: Something needs to happen to justify getting rid of DE Brandon Graham, and DT’s Malik Jackson and Fletcher Cox this offseason.
4) Doug has to look clueless: Remember the day that Doug outcoached Bill Belichik? Well Howie needs you to forget that he can do that. Forcing him to start a rookie vs a Sean Payton coached team, is the equivalent to blindfolding Doug, putting him in the ring with Mike Tyson, and then demanding a win.
Remember:
Beating Sean Payton with a rookie, would suggest that Doug is a beast, and Wentz is the dead weight.
Roseman needs a loss. The worse the loss we suffer, the easier it will be for him to tear the team down to the studs.
The worst thing that could happen for everyone, is a concussion or anything else that means Hurts can’t finish the game. Wentz leading a comeback victory would be the absolute nightmare scenario for both Pederson and Roseman.
I can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.
