One of the unprovable theories going around in Eagles land is that Carson Wentz isn’t being coached hard enough. He’s buddy-buddy with Press Taylor and/or the staff goes soft on him , etc.

It’s “unprovable” because unless you’re in the QB room or a daily practice participant it’s impossible to know who gets preferential treatment and who doesn’t, but head coach Doug Pederson was asked about it Wednesday and had this to say:

“This question of, ‘is he being coached hard enough,’ I don’t necessarily understand. He’s being coached the way we would coach any of our players. We coach them all the same and coach them hard and aggressive. We’re trying to get the most out of all our guys. It just so happens that the quarterback position is magnified. Just like my position as head coach, it’s magnified. Every decision, every throw, everything he and I do is going to be criticized, and that’s okay. But I know how he’s being coached and how he’s receiving the coaching and practicing and working with the players and the offensive line. I get it; it hasn’t been perfect, but we’re still working and we’re going to get better each week.”

Regarding this topic, it’s worth revisiting the Joe Santoliquito article from last January, titled “Exclusive: Sources inside Eagles paint Carson Wentz as ‘selfish,’ ‘uncompromising’ and ‘playing favorites’. Joe’s writing was laughed off at the time but Wentz himself lent credence to the piece when he later told reporters that he does have shortcomings and could understand why he may have been perceived as selfish at the time.

Joe’s story alleged that Wentz bullied then-offensive coordinator Mike Groh and was not receptive to criticism. He quoted an anonymous source who said Wentz “had his ass kissed his whole life” while explaining that Frank Reich and John DeFilippo were the ones who reigned him in back in 2017.

Maybe that’s true, maybe not; but it’s one of the reference points people use with this “Wentz is coddled” narrative. It goes hand-in-hand with the “Doug sucks without Reich and DeFilippo” take, which, again, might be true, it’s just impossible to logically prove based on the lack of hard evidence at our disposal.

As a general thought, whatever the coaches are doing right now isn’t working. Maybe they need to get harder on everybody or take a different approach, because this squad stinks.