The sports world is polarized over Doug Pederson's decision to replace QB Jalen Hurts with Nate Sudfeld in the Eagles', essentially meaningless, Week 17 game against the Washington Football Team.
Most people see it as a "tank," securing a loss for a higher draft pick, but Pederson disagrees.
"It appears that yeah, that probably to the public eye that I benched Jalen Hurts," Pederson told Angelo Cataldi on Monday's 94WIP Morning Show. "I had a plan all week and my plan was to go into this football game, number one to win the football game, bottom line, hands down—win the football. But also, we had a number of young players that were playing in this football game and I wanted to see these guys. And Nate [Sudfeld] having been here since 2017 the opportunity to play and so I felt at that time to give him the opportunity to play.
"Every game has priority to win," he continued. "This is the thing Angelo, I think when you look at our season, this one game did not make or break our season. We failed. We failed miserably. I'll be the first one to admit that. And I've got to look at myself, I'll start with myself and self evaluate and obviously as a coach and leader of this team to see how we can improve and where we need to improve, and head in that direction."
Pederson was asked if he's aware of the public outrage from his decision.
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"But Angelo did you guys watch the game?" Pederson asked. "We struggled miserably there in the third quarter to score and we had opportunities to score. I've got to do what I feel is in the best interest of the Philadelphia Eagles and the team to help us win the football game. Don't sit here and pin this on Nate Sudfeld or the decision to put him in the football game. Nate's an NFL quarterback and he's a good quarterback and he's done some great things for us. He was our backup in the Super Bowl for goodness sake. Perception, I don't get into perception a whole lot."