"It Felt Great to Get That Thing Off," Says Carson Wentz of His Knee Brace
Judging by the video clips I saw on Twitter today, the Philadelphia Eagles are going 16-0.
DeSean Jackson looked good without any defensive backs covering him. Nate Sudfeld was excellent in handing the ball off. And Carson Wentz, without his knee brace, was a full participant, with no restrictions, in the OTA session.
“It felt great to get that thing off,” said the Birds quarterback, releasing a pronounced sigh of relief. “I felt good out there.”
So what went into the decision to take off the brace? Did he push for it? Did the medical staff give him the green light?
“Ultimately it was my decision,” Wentz said. “But just talking through it with everybody, we felt it was best going forward. The knee feels good; it feels strong. I feel better without it.”
Wentz says the plan is to go without the brace in games, so it looks like we’re moving forward sans brace for the foreseeable future. I know I joked about the OTA video clips above, which show players doing May repetitions against nobody in particular, but Carson honestly looks like he’s moving well here:
Check out this Carson Wentz footwork. Pay attention to the #LeftKnee. pic.twitter.com/coFhUY1q1A
— Bob Grotz 🇺🇸 (@BobGrotz) May 21, 2019
Here’s another clip of Wentz’s footwork in the “pocket,” after the jump:
Great sign Carson Wentz has no brace on knee and back is healed👍🏼#Eagles pic.twitter.com/4QReVHQXci
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) May 21, 2019
It is, of course, one thing for Wentz to be given full clearance to participate without restriction in the spring and summer, but is there an element of restraint? Does Carson have to look out for himself and stick to the plan without trying to do too much, too soon?
“To some extent, yeah,” he said. “As a competitor, you want to take every rep and you want to do this, want to do that. But at the same time, you just stay the course, and I feel really confident where I’m at, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot through these processes, to not be my worst enemy and just kind of listen to advice along the way. I feel good where I’m at.”
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve been (my worst enemy) over the last two years, but it was more of just how I was wired growing up, being from North Dakota, a smaller school, and all of those things. You just want to work, work, work, push, push, push, and there are times maybe where you just have to tone it down a little bit and listen to some advice people are giving you. But it’s been a good process, unfortunately, over the last through years going through this and I feel good with where I’m at today.”
Wentz also explained that he studied up on the way that Tom Brady and other players have focused on diet and nutrition as ways to stay healthy and perform at an elite level. He didn’t want to go into specifics about that, but joked about writing a book about it some day.