John DeFilippo, the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback coach during the 2016 season and Super Bowl winning 2017 season, spoke about the downfall of Carson Wentz during his 90 minute in-studio appearance on 94WIP.
"There's a lot of pressure on guys," DeFilippo told Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie when asked what happened to Wentz on Monday's 94WIP Morning Show. "That's a lot of pressure on a young man. Carson is still a young guy at the time and coming from a smaller program.
"I'm not saying he couldn't handle it, but we all handle those situations differently. And I think Carson did press to come back [from his injury] probably a little bit too early.
"There's a difference between being physically ready to play and emotionally ready to play from an injury. And I think you become a little bit, I don't want to say leery of planting on that foot or driving on that foot. But you've got to get hit on it a couple of times. And I think he pressed a little bit to come back because of the way Nick played and was playing, and I think that compounded into some other things."
DeFilippo, a 46-year-old former Radnor High School quarterback, spoke about his relationship with Wentz.
"I give out a coin to the quarterbacks I've coached in the past and it has a saying on it and it basically says, 'When you play at this position you accept the responsibility of the whole building on your shoulders.' I took it from a couple of the military guys that have given me their coins in the past, so I created one for the quarterbacks I coached," DeFilippo explained.
"You have to hold guys accountable...I think there has been a lot written about the relationship between Carson and I. Some of the things that have been written as a coach, I will say they are—it kind of really wasn't like that. Were Carson and I going out to dinner and those things off of the field? No we weren't. I think there needs to be a separation between the player and the coach. Carson and I have a tremendous mutual respect for each other, we have talked and seen each other since both our departures from Philadelphia. If I text him or he texts me, we text each other right back. There's just a really good mutual respect there and I think that's a positive coach, player relationship."