Eagles

In a Craig Carton vs. Howard Eskin Situation, We’re Begrudgingly Riding with the King

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Feb 22nd, 2024 · 3:11 PM EST

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Craig Carton on Twitter:

So according to Eagles shill er I mean sideline reporter and old pal of mine Howard Eskin there’s no merit to what I said but yes “Fletcher Cox and several other players had a real problem with Jalen Hurts throughout this past year and Cox was stern about it.” Me – 2 Philly – 0

— Craig Carton (@craigcartonlive) February 22, 2024

He’s referring to Howard’s appearance on the WIP morning show, in which The King joined Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie to clean up the various slop that’s been reported about the Birds this week. Keep in mind that Howard has been carrying Eagles water for many years now, but he also got the Kellen Moore news and is on a 1-scoop winning streak, so King is currently slightly in favor again.

Eskin said this about Carton’s comments on the fractures inside the Eagles’ locker room (Andrew Porter at Audacy):

“It was a total exaggeration,” Eskin said. “What has occurred in that situation I believe, what he’s trying to imply, is Jalen Hurts, we know his personality it’s got to take a step up. I don’t know how you change that. I mean it was the same personality when you got to the Super Bowl, but when they’re not playing well you try to find reasons. So a few players have talked to Jalen Hurts about, ‘Hey listen, you’ve got to connect more, you’ve got to be more emotional on the sidelines, you’ve got to be more apart of us.’ A few players have done that. The one player that’s probably more—I think the word demonstrative is probably too much of implying what’s going on—was Fletcher Cox. Fletcher is a stern guy and he was not happy with his emotion, but other players were the same way.

So Fletcher is the guy, and this is why this makes sense from what I’ve been told—Craig Carton said, ‘There is going to be a prominent player that may not be with the team next year because of this.’ Well Fletcher Cox has basically already said that he’s done…So Craig is going to say, ‘Well, I told you a player wasn’t coming back.’ It was not a fight, it was not a screaming match, it was not any of those things and he’s just one of the players that has talked to him. But he does it in a sterner fashion…and other people from the team have talked to Jalen Hurts about that. Now, let’s be clear, the team was not good enough.”

Eskin didn’t say anything about infidelity, which is a fan-generated rumor that Adam Schefter’s organizational source denied on Wednesday. We don’t know if anyone slept with someone else’s wife or girlfriend. But a King vs. Carton kerfuffle is a rough one. It’s like a 49ers vs. Chiefs Super Bowl. Whoever wins, we lose. But if you’re forcing me to pick a side, then I have to ride with the King.