Carson Wentz’s leadership style is just fine with Eagles’ Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson

INDIANAPOLIS – If every single player in the Eagles’ locker room isn’t enamored of Carson Wentz’s leadership style, Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson don’t much care.

Eagles coach Pederson recalled his playing days as a backup to Hall of Fame quarterbacks Dan Marino and Brett Favre, who were not universally loved, he said.

“You’re not always going to be buddy-buddy with everybody. You build relationships with everybody, yeah. But you hold everybody to a high standard, including yourself. We’re not in the feel-good business,” Pederson said. “We’re obviously in the business to win games and ultimately a championship. That’s our goal. If people get offended, I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is.”

Pederson said he sees Wentz leading in a similar vein to Marino and Favre. He also indicated he sees room for continued growth.

“They were a certain way on the field, because they demanded excellence, even from themselves, but then off the football field they were buddies. They were inclusive. They got everybody involved,” Pederson said. “Those are things as quarterbacks, especially franchise guys, you learn over the course of your career. Those are all things we have seen Carson do. He is very capable, obviously, of doing that. We continue to nurture that. We’re an all-inclusive team. We do a lot of things together. As they say, it takes a village.”

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Pederson and Roseman, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, met with reporters Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. This was the first appearance for either since PhillyVoice published a story last month in which anonymous sources called Wentz “selfish” and “egotistical.” Several prominent Eagles then rose to Wentz’s defense, questioning the validity of those perceptions.

Wentz subsequently met with a select group of reporters and said he felt perhaps last year he got too tightly focused on his knee injury recovery and wasn’t always the teammate he might have been.

Roseman, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, said he was unconcerned.

“We know Carson. We know what kind of teammate he is. We know what kind of leader he is,” Roseman said.

“It’s ironic, because as we’ve gone through free agency since we drafted Carson, there have been so many guys who have wanted to come to Philly to play with him. So none of that [story] is of any [consequence] to us. We’re incredibly excited to have him as our QB and excited about the season.”

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The bigger news Wednesday was Roseman’s announcement that the team will not use its franchise tag on backup quarterback Nick Foles, allowing him to hit free agency March 13. In the PhillyVoice story, Wentz was compared unflatteringly to Foles, who has a more laid-back, deferential personality. Though the quarterbacks are close friends, the Wentz-Foles dynamic has been a tricky one ever since Foles took the reins in the final month of the 2017 season, following Wentz’s season-ending knee injury. Foles then led the team to its first-ever Super Bowl title.

It will be interesting to see how removing Foles from the mix affects perceptions of Wentz’s leadership.

Of course, as Pederson pointed out, Wentz’s most pressing challenge right now is proving he can stay healthy while leading a team into the playoffs. In 2018 he again had to sit down in mid-December, this time with a stress fracture in his back.

“We know how we all feel about Carson. Carson’s our quarterback. I love everything about Carson Wentz and the way he attacks his job every single day. The way he competes, the way he embraces the locker room,” Pederson said. “I don’t put a lot of weight in that [story], a lot of stock in that.

“It’s his performance on the football field [that matters most], obviously. He understands where he’s at. He understands he’s got to stay on the field, he knows that. But at the same time, guys really rally around him and support him. He’s one piece, not the entire football team.”

The story critical of Wentz also claimed that he “bullied” offensive coordinator Mike Groh and wouldn’t run the offense as designed. Pederson was asked about how he handled input from Wentz.

“I think that’s one of his strengths, for him to be able to come to me, to Mike Groh with ideas, with things that can help us win the game,” Pederson said. “That’s what we’re all about. It’s about being open, being honest, being transparent.

“Not that we have to accept every idea he brings to the table, but at the same time, we’re going to listen. If we can implement it in the game plan, we will. If not, maybe we’ll save it for the next week. As a play caller, you gotta kind of crawl into the head of the quarterback a little bit, kind of see it through his eyes. So having these conversations with him during the week really gives me, as a play caller, a good insight as to what he’s also seeing in our opponent that week.”

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From what Roseman and Pederson said Wednesday, 25-year-old Nate Sudfeld, who was in Wentz’s draft class, will get every chance to prove he can move up from third to second on the QB depth chart.

“Nate’s done a great job. Nate’s really put himself in a position to compete for it. We don’t just go around and give out jobs, but at the same time, we want him to compete for that spot,” Pederson said. “We feel like he’s earned the opportunity to do that. I’m comfortable with him, what he’s done. He’s been with us now for a few years and understands our system. It’s a matter of him just embracing that and moving forward with it.”

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