It’s the Tuesday before the NFL playoffs are set to begin, and yet we’re STILL talking about the perceived tanking move that led to a lot of shock around the league.
On Sunday, with a potential upset of the Washington Football Team in the Philadelphia Eagles’ sights, coach Doug Pederson pulled QB Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld. The reason I used “perceived” in describing the potential tank job — the Eagles had nothing but draft position to play for — is Pederson said he “was coaching to win” when asked about the head-scratching move.
As my colleague Henry McKenna correctly noted, the reward for Pederson’s move was to move from ninth to sixth overall in the 2021 draft, justifying the QB change and then some when you consider that the Eagles could take a quarterback to replace Carson Wentz later this year. The risk of alienating a locker room (more on that in a second) outweighs the reward.
Speaking of which! There’s a Philadelphia Inquirer report that “Some [Eagles players] were angry. Two defensive players had to be held back from approaching Pederson.” Hurts — himself a second-rounder last year auditioning to perhaps replace Wentz — “was distraught, as well.”
It’s a move that brings with it some risk. If a coach does something that looks blatantly like tanking for the future, the vets in the locker room will take that as a slight even if it’s the right move to help the franchise win the future (because, of course, maybe those vets aren’t around to reap the benefits of the aforementioned tank). It’s clear that Giants coach Joe Judge used what the Eagles did to motivate his own players when he told reporters “we will never do that as long as I’m the head coach of the New York Giants.”
But here’s the thing with all this “controversy.” It’s going to be forgotten about in a few months.
Fans are already deep-diving into who the Eagles could take with the sixth overall pick. Players from this year’s roster who are retained for the 2021 season will start mini-camps and OTAs and eventually training camp, and they’ll be freshly motivated to win again under Pederson, who just so happens to have won a Super Bowl not too long ago.
Pederson — and maybe his front office — also might have calculated that some of the players who might be insulted by such a move could be out this summer. Per Spotrac the Eagles are No. 31 out of 32 teams when it comes to space in 2021 and will have a lot of work to do to get under the cap.
The point here: the NFL circle of life will begin anew, any anger and shock with what went down Sunday night will be long gone. It may feel like a big deal some 36 hours after, but the Eagles have a lot more to focus on moving ahead.
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