Joe Santoliquito, coming in hot on MLK Day.

The long-time local sports writer dropped a Philly Voice story this morning citing anonymous sources in describing Carson Wentz as a “selfish” and “uncompromising” player. Joe says Voice spoke with “more than a half dozen players, plus other sources close to the team” over the past two months.

I have been judged as the most pragmatic and reasonable Crossing Broad writer, therefore I’ve been assigned the reactionary piece to Joe’s piece.

Let’s go through the story and pull some excerpts to analyze.

Writes Joe:

Whereas some circles blamed the Eagles’ offensive failures on new offensive coordinator Mike Groh, numerous sources in and around the NFL and Eagles said they thought Wentz may have been the root of the Eagles’ offensive problems. Groh is a “good coach,” who was “bullied” by Wentz, according to sources. The problem with the offense this past season shouldn’t lie with Groh, it should “lie with Wentz,” they said.

Yeah? Well I could see that happening. Groh was a first-year offensive coordinator who worked with the wide receivers in 2017, so this was his first season directly interacting with Wentz. If Frank Reich and John DeFilippo were veteran coaches, you could understand how they might assert more control over a then-25-year-old quarterback. Joe touches on that a few paragraphs later.

One thing is certain: Every one of our sources said the same things almost verbatim about the relationship between Wentz and Nick Foles: “They love each other, they respect each other and they support each other.”

But while the sentiment in the Eagles’ locker room is that Foles is “universally loved,” Wentz isn’t.

I found it interesting that Chris Long and Fletcher Cox created that Nick Foles shrine. You could theorize that they love the dude because of the Super Bowl run last year, sure. It certainly seemed like the team had really positive things to say about Nick when he took over for Carson, but I don’t know if that equates to them disliking Carson. It’s not like being “pro-Nick” automatically means that you’re “anti-Carson.” You could simply enjoy playing with one guy more than the other guy while enjoying both as people and players.

More after the jump:

Numerous sources confirmed Wentz was once verbally attacked by a highly respected teammate for not being “a team guy.”

“Carson Wentz’s biggest enemy is Carson Wentz,” one source said. “He’s had his ass kissed his whole life, and sometimes acts like he’s won 10 Super Bowls, when he hasn’t played in, let alone won, a playoff game yet. Everyone around him wants good things for him. He did more thinking on the field than he did playing (in 2018). You don’t have to be a brain surgeon or a football expert to see how differently this team plays and reacts with one guy as opposed to the other.”

I can see the reasoning here. Wentz has been a #1 guy his entire life. He didn’t have to sit behind another quarterback as a rookie. Sam Bradford was shipped out to allow Carson to be a starter in his first NFL year. And it’s certainly true that it’s a different team with Nick in the game.

According to multiple sources, Wentz tended to “complicate” the offense. He didn’t let it come organically, as Foles did. According to one source, Wentz could “complicate 2+2.”

Reich and DeFilippo stressed to Wentz the importance of sticking with the play that was called — a completed pass was there waiting. When Wentz deviated from that, it was sometimes met with bad consequences, like an interception or a sack. When Wentz trusted what Reich and DeFilippo called, it led to an MVP-like season that produced an Eagles’ single-season franchise record 33 touchdown passes and an 11-2 record in 13 games.

This can never really be proven because there are too many variables, but you could certainly go through every down he’s ever played and look for pre-snap reads and audibles. You can look for instances where he pulled the ball out during RPOs. You could look at the amount of times he tried to force the ball to one receiver and you could time how long he held onto the ball.

I think it was pretty apparent that Foles was smoother at going through his reads and taking what the defense gave him. Lane Johnson said himself that the ball was coming out quicker with Nick playing QB.

Wentz’s proclivity for playing “favorites” manifested itself in targeting Ertz, who went on to catch a single-season NFL-record 116 passes for a tight end. Over the 11 games Wentz played, he went to Ertz 106 times (an average of 9.6 targets per game), while Alshon Jeffery was targeted 74 times (7.4 targets per game) and Nelson Agholor 60 times (5.4 targets per game). Sources added, without any great revelation, that Jordan Matthews is an Eagle because “of his buddy Wentz.”

I did a story on this. The results showed that Wentz threw to Alshon Jeffery more often than Foles did. I think we all kind of concluded that Nick was more willing to target Alshon on contested downfield and/or jump ball type of passes, because he trusted him to go up and make those plays while perhaps Carson did not.

But Nick Foles still threw at Ertz frequently.

Here are those numbers:

That’s 65 total targets over 7 games, so 9.2 targets per game. That’s a difference of 0.4 in how much each quarterback targeted Zach Ertz this season. You’d have to go through film and look at distances and air yards and see how each QB specifically used the #1 tight end.

The subjects interviewed for this story gave the impression that Wentz changed after his injury. With Foles more than likely gone next season and nothing but open space ahead to rehab and spend a full training camp as QB1, there seems to be a good chance he’ll be his dynamic self again — both on the gridiron and with his teammates.

“He has to return to who ‘Carson Wentz’ is,” a source told PhillyVoice. “That comes with relaxing and not forcing things. It also comes with being able to take constructive criticism. He has to learn that it’s not always about him and that’s partly what hurt this team this year. We know what type of player he can be, and who he normally is. He needs to realize it’s the Philadelphia Eagles not the Philadelphia Carsons.

Sure.

I can’t imagine tearing my ACL and then watching another guy go on and win the Super Bowl. Of course you’re frustrated. Of course you want to work your ass off to get back to full health, get back on the field, and prove that you can do what your backup did. That’s natural competitive DNA that should exist in pretty much every single player. Stefen Wisniewski, another devout Christian guy, was unhappy and complained when he got benched earlier this season.

For what it’s worth, and this might be burying the lede, but several Eagles came out on social media to dispute the allegations made by the anonymous sources:

And Brandon Brooks:

And now Lane Johnson:

And regarding Joe specifically, he’s a freelancer who writes for several different outlets. He publishes things for Voice and for CBS 3 as well, and he used to come in and do the Sports Zone show that I produced on Sunday night. He dabbles in different sports and could probably be described as a jack of all trades.

Some people went back and pulled some previous things he said/wrote about Wentz to see if there were any conclusions to draw, any particular “bias” towards one guy over the other.

Here are some findings via “Patrick” on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/pmc1423/status/1087369635308163072?s=21

Right, so you can reach your own conclusions with this story. Go read the Voice piece and see how you feel. I’m sure we’ll get a few more responses from teammates.