Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show, former Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins recently gave some very interesting comments on what he believes part of the issue is with his old team and quarterback Carson Wentz.
Jenkins was first asked by Eisen about what he thinks of what has happened to the Eagles, the team Jenkins played for from 2014 to 2019 before being released.
Here is Jenkins’s comments in full:
“Well I am going to be honest, I haven’t paid a ton of attention to it, I was really just looking around the league to see with all of the coaching vacancies how they want to handle black coaches and what opportunities were going to come. But I do know that whoever was going to take over that job in Philly was inheriting some work. I think Jeffrey Lurie made some comments earlier this offseason that hinted or was really direct that they were going into a rebuilding phase. I know as players on the team and as a fan base you never really want to hear that, because it sometimes muddies up what the priorities are. But look, they have as situation where obviously all that went down with Carson Wentz this year, a lot of money that was invested into him and then you had Jalen Hurts come in and really take command of the offense, ignite a little bit of juice into the team, and that is not the first time that has happened from a backup quarterback obviously in Philly. So it is one of those things where something has to change. Whether you put that onus on the coaching staff or you put that onus on the players that are there. But I mean, there is obviously going to be a lot of work to be done there, but they have great leadership, they got players in that locker room that are a prideful group, and what you hope to see is that — at least from a fan, I even call myself an Eagles fan. You just hope that the competitiveness, that the culture and the kind of the ethos of what that team stands for at least stays in place.”
Jenkins was then asked about whether the locker-room issues that have been reported about Wentz are true:
“Well I think as a teammate and a friend of Carson’s, I think that it always starts with performance. And he hasn’t performed up to, I think, the expectations that everybody has had for him. I don’t think he would say he has played up to his own expectations. But some of the other issues that I felt when I was in the locker room was just that there was too much leeway and it didn’t make him a better player. I don’t think they did him any favors by trying to kind of protect his ego or trying to…you know, really protect him as a player as opposed to keeping it just like every other player, keeping it performance based. And really being real about what he needed to improve on, but also adjusting to put him in places that can make him successful. I think that is a little bit on the coaching staff, that is also some onus on the player, like every player should go into every offseason evaluating what they did well, what they didn’t do well, you look to see improvement year-after-year. But if that is not the case and you don’t see it and there are no changes and it is not being addressed, then I know as a player you almost feel like ‘What are we doing?’ To do the same thing over-and-over again and expect different results is insanity. And unfortunately I think that a little bit of that has taken place of the last two years, and obviously this offseason showed that something had to change in a major way, and Carson is still there, and so he still — regardless of who they bring in to coach him and get him better — he is still going to have to improve as a player in order for that team to have success.”
Jenkins’ comments certainly seem to back up much of what has been reported in the past about Wentz. The question is what will the team do about it moving forward, and whether Wentz will even be back after new head coach Nick Sirianni wasn’t willing to commit to the quarterback being on the roster in 2021.
You can check out the full video of Jenkins’ comments below, but they certainly are noteworthy considering Jenkins’ history in that locker room: