Remember the first Joe Santoliquito story? Of course you do. It turned this city upside down and resulted in threats to the author while culminating in a super-secret meeting between Carson Wentz and a hand-selected group of reporters, causing STRIFE within the beat ranks. It was the biggest and most controversial story of that entire calendar year.

Fast forward to 2021 and Santoliquito has another epic published at Philly Voice. It’s not Moby Dick, but it’s pretty long, and it’s sort of a 2.0 story that tails off the recent reports surrounding Carson while adding some new nuggets via Joe’s sources.

This one is called “Inside the downfall that led to Carson Wentz’s likely exit from Eagles,” and I’ll just pull a couple of the more interesting nuggets, among them:

“Is there anyone in here who’s going to believe in [Wentz]? I can’t speak for everyone, but I have a good feeling that there are a lot of guys who don’t right now,” said one source within the organization, who wished to remain anonymous, because “if he can get an NFL head coach fired, they’ll have no problem cutting anyone’s ass.”

All one respected veteran would say is that “there’s a problem here.” 

Players “were pissed” that Wentz reportedly planned to ask for a trade and wants out if he is not going to be the starting quarterback, sources said. They interpreted it as if Wentz was quitting on them.

Yeah, well listen; everybody was terrible last year. Offense, defense, special teams, etc. Nobody covered themselves in glory. I wouldn’t begrudge anybody requesting a trade (which was never confirmed), after playing like crap and losing their job. I guarantee most of these anonymous players would look for an out if they lost their job to a rookie. They’d seek the same change of scenery and restart.

More:

According to numerous sources within the Eagles and the NFL, Wentz did what he was coached to do. He simply made wrong decisions and played poorly. The looks were there. Wentz just didn’t deliver. 

What many sources strongly denied, however, was that Wentz intentionally killed plays “for no other reason than his personal distaste” for what Pederson called, as suggested in the incredibly well-reported Inquirer story by Jeff McLane on Jan. 16. No one completely ruled that possibility out, insinuating it may have happened — though probably not. 

Two sources very close to the Eagles used the exact same phrase when that topic was broached, saying, “That would never happen in a million years.” 

Figured as much.

Moving on:

Numerous sources stated that there are many things Wentz lacks, but he possesses a high football IQ and can recognize what a defense is doing. 

“[Wentz is] a glorified system quarterback who needs the right coaching, the willingness to accept coaching, take proper preparation and have a lot of pieces around him,” one NFL source said. “He’s not going to create, like an Aaron Rodgers or a Patrick Mahomes. 

“That’s where the Eagles got fooled after 2017. That version of Wentz is gone. They still haven’t accepted it.” 

Alright, so every single report that comes out confirms what we already knew. Everybody deserves blame. Doug obviously lost his touch. Carson regressed and needs to allow himself to be coached and to be fixed. The personnel situation was bad. The drafting was bad. The defense was bad.

By all accounts, Wentz seems to be a smart guy with a good work ethic. That’s not the problem, nor has it ever been the problem. Obviously the injuries and the relationships and the Nick Foles’ shadow combined into one gross amalgam of problems that just turned this thing to shit and left us with four wins and a fired coach. At this point, a mutual parting of ways seems like the obvious way forward, and then we’ll thank Carson for his contributions in 2017 and let bygones be bygones.

Read Joe’s full article at Voice here:

Inside the downfall that led to Carson Wentz’s likely exit from Eagles,