Players like Carson Wentz “are like fingers on your hand. You can’t even imagine they’re not there,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said Monday, the day after the franchise concluded its 4-11-1 season, the team’s worst mark since 2012.
Roseman was responding to a question about an ESPN report alleging that Wentz will ask for a trade this offseason because his relationship with head coach Doug Pederson is beyond repair. Roseman and Pederson insisted the relationship is good and that their focus is “to get him right” after one of the worst regressions by a quarterback in NFL history.
After Sunday night’s 20-14 season-ending loss to Washington, Pederson said he had not spoken to Wentz or anyone about the trade request report. When Roseman was asked Monday if he had done so, he deflected the question, talked of keeping conversations private.
Wentz’s representatives have not responded to requests for comment.
Roseman said that trading Wentz “is not anything that we’re talking about right now. We’re talking about a guy that’s immensely talented, that has a great work ethic, and [the focus is] doing whatever we can to put him in the best possible situation to be successful.”
It was striking how little Roseman and Pederson spoke about rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts, who got the final four starts of the season. It is hard to know whether they really will mount an effort to convince Wentz, 28, that he can still be the starter here, or whether they are trying to emphasize their regard for him as a bargaining ploy as they try to work out a trade, which would involve a $34 million dead cap hit, the largest in NFL history.
Roseman said he regrets his comment after drafting Hurts in the second round, 53rd overall, about wanting the franchise to be a “quarterback factory.”
“In terms of Carson, I don’t think it’s a secret that we moved up [twice in the 2016 draft] for him because of what we thought of him, as a person, as a player. We gave him that [2019 contract] extension because of the same things,” Roseman said.
The session was about much more than Wentz and the future of the quarterback position, though everything else that happens in 2021 might flow from what happens there. Roseman, speaking for the first time since the season started, said the 2020 performance was “disappointing, embarrassing, frustrating,” as the Eagles lost seven of their final eight games and Wentz was benched Dec. 6 during a loss to the Packers, despite the $128 million extension he signed in 2019.
Roseman said he knew last offseason that he needed to start turning over the roster, moving on to younger players, but “I don’t think we went full-fledged in that.” He referred to “a little voice inside my head” that Roseman said he wished he had not ignored.
“When we thought about how the season would go, I can’t tell you there was any situation where we felt like we’d be where we are today, sitting here,” Roseman said. “We have to come back and look at it with fresh eyes ... we have to do a deep dive on every position.”
Roseman said the sixth overall pick in the coming NFL draft is “something we have to hit on in a huge, huge way.”
The fact that owner Jeffrey Lurie allowed Roseman and Pederson to speak about the organization’s offseason challenges was tacit confirmation of what has been reported, that both men will return in their present positions.
