Does Pederson’s Firing Impact Wentz or Hurts?

As reported on Monday, Head Coach Doug Pederson has been fired after five seasons with the team.  During his tenure he was a Super Bowl champion in his second year with the team, had two consecutive playoff appearances after that, and obviously, a terrible 4-11-1 record in 2020.

The question that has been asked since Week 13 is who will be the starting/franchise QB moving forward? It seemed as though Jalen Hurts had the keys to the ship after defeating the Saints in Week 14, but who knows.

I’m a firm believer that QB records shouldn’t matter because wins and losses are team accomplishments and you can’t play both sides of ball, especially a valuable position like QB.

Eagles looked for a spark as Carson Wentz had terrible play all year long and resulted to Jalen Hurts towards the end up the season.

For the sake of argument let’s compare both QB’s first four career starts:

Carson Wentz first 4 career starts:

Record: 3-1

Completions: 91/135 (67.4%)

TDs/Int: 7-1

Sacks: 7

Passer Rating: 96.58%

Rushing Yards: 35 yards

Rushing TD’s: 0

Now considering these numbers, the main point of this isn’t to bring any one of these players down but to open up discussion to who deserves or can earn the start next season

Pederson and Wentz have had a rocky relationship this past year and they can’t seem to be on the same page.

Wentz clearly doesn’t like the benching and Pederson was in favor of it because he thinks the birds needed a spark in Jalen Hurts.

With Pederson out of the picture you might think that Carson Wentz can benefit from this firing.

He is going into the off-season as still the franchise QB, they are paying him a $128 million contract extension, and he can start with a clean slate and staff next year.

During the press conference after Pederson’s firing, Jeffrey Lurie described Wentz as an “Elite” player and he “fully expects Carson Wentz to realize his potential”.

Take it how you want it, but it doesn’t sound like Wentz is going anywhere.

Jalen Hurts first 4 career starts:

Record: 1-3

Completions: 69/133 (51.88%)

Sacks: 10

TD’s/Int: 6-4

Passer Rating: 70.5%

Rushing Yards: 272

Rushing TD’s: 3

On the contrary, Hurts has showed some flashes of being a capable starter in this league, whether it be for Philly or another team, but he deserves to be a starter somewhere in the league.

Hurts most likely could have won the game against The Washington Football Team but was pulled at the end of the 3rd quarter for Nate Sudfeld who wasn’t that great.

He most likely won’t benefit from being on the bench because he is a play maker and thrives better when on the field and in the moment.

Even when facing adversity he can prevail it, like being bench for Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama and eventually transferring to Oklahoma to winning a BIG 12 championship.

Hurts is the real deal and will succeed in this league.

Conclusion

Now considering these numbers, the main point of this isn’t to bring any one of these players down but to open up discussion to who deserves or can earn the start next season.

Both QB’s will succeed but only one will be the starting QB come September.  Maybe they’ll both get an equal chance to start by battling it out in training camp.

Doug will likely get a head coaching job somewhere else because he is a good coach, and you don’t just leave Super Bowl winning coaches jobless after one bad season.

This is his worst season as a head coach which is understandable but the past few seasons he has made some questionable decisions, so it was time for a fresh start.