Philadelphia Eagles: 5 quick thoughts on the end of year press conferences

What next for the Philadelphia Eagles?

It wasn’t the season everyone was hoping for, but the result doesn’t change nevertheless. The Philadelphia Eagles finished this past season 4-11-1, they had the 8th worst offense in the league (total yards), the 14th worst defense, and will ultimately own the sixth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Following the team’s obvious “tank job” in Week 17 against the division winning Washington Football Team, a handful of people within the organization spoke to the media on Monday morning.

Here are some of my instant takeaways from the morning of press conferences:

Carson Wentz isn’t gone…yet.

With a flurry of new reports dropping Sunday morning before the day’s games kicked off, the general consensus was that Carson Wentz would be 100% demanding a trade this upcoming offseason. It’s honestly hard to blame him, considering the way the organization has handled the offense the last few years.

However, Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson were quick to claim that the relationship could be salvaged.

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Most of these frustrations appear to be on Wentz’ side of the ball, and a potential trade out of Philly likely rests on his decision to potentially restructure his contract. If he isn’t willing to do that, or decides he ultimately doesn’t want to be traded, he could very well remain a Philadelphia Eagle.

Zach Ertz is definitely getting traded.

The other major domino set to fall this offseason, Zach Ertz is definitely going to get moved sometime in the near future. Ertz delivered a heartfelt “thank you” to the city of Philadelphia this morning, one that saw him actually break down into tears.

Ertz is an Eagles legend, and it ultimately sucks to see his career in Philly end this way. However, it’s a business, and Howie Roseman’s mismanagement of the cap leads to tough decisions like this having to be made.

The “Super Bowl window” is officially closed.

Say what you will about the 2018 and 2019 seasons, but the Philadelphia Eagles as an organization operated those years with the idea that they could snag another Super Bowl win. They traded for veterans like DeSean Jackson, handed out lofty contracts to retain talent (Alshon Jeffery for example), and ultimately shied away from giving snaps to younger talent.

Coming off a disastrous 4-11-1 season, Roseman and co. appear to be shutting down any talks of jumping back into to contention in the near future. Whether that means they’ll continue to play for draft position, or simply start using rookies more often, only time will tell.

Howie knows who Justin Jefferson is!

An obvious talking point for Philadelphia Eagles fans, Howie Roseman was questioned about the decision to select Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson a handful of times. He gave your typical responses, “Reagor was hurt, the pandemic hurt our guys’ development, we thought Reagor fit our scheme better” etc. But ultimately speaking, Howie did seem to acknowledge that a shift may be necessary in terms of how they assess draft prospects.

The Eagles may end up having their choice of Ja’Marr Chase, DeVonta Smith, or Jaylen Waddle in this year’s draft – they can’t mess that up.

Like it or not, the pandemic altered the Eagles offseason approach.

It’s completely reasonable to want to vomit anytime the Eagles cite the pandemic as a reason for their struggles this season (considering the fact that every single team in the league dealt with it), but it sounds like the wonky nature of this year’s offseason altered Howie Roseman’s decision making process at times.

He cited an over-reliance on veterans and “sure things”, as opposed to moving forward with the youth like he promised after 2019.

If COVID-19 never happened, I wonder if guys like Jason Peters, Vinny Curry, Nickell Robey-Coleman and others would have been signed at all.