PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- There are conflicting reports about reaction among Eagles players to coach Doug Pederson's now infamous decision to sit rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts and play Nate Sudfeld instead in the fourth quarter of the Eagle's final loss of the season, against Washington.
The Eagles have not returned calls from KYW Newsradio or others for comments on an Inquirer report stating that a couple of defensive players were held back from approaching Pederson after Hurts was pulled and that center Jason Kelce and another starter asked the coach about what was happening.
Kelce himself, however, took to Instagram to clarify that moment in the game.
He wrote that he understands how it might have looked, but "at no point was anything from me or anyone else confrontational."
Though he and others knew Pederson had planned to sub in Sudfeld, Kelce wrote, "I'd be lying if (I said) I wasn't a little surprised, given the circumstances, that the move happened when it did."
Kelce in December had made the case against tanking a game, saying NFL teams always play to win. Yet at the start of the fourth quarter on Sunday, the Eagles were down by only three points, a margin that many observers have said Hurts could have reversed.
"Every one of us did our best, and all of us believe we can win with Nate Sudfeld," Kelce wrote. "It didn't work out Sunday, but as always, that's not just on him."
Miles Sanders, who didn’t play in the game because of a knee injury, said on 94WIP Tuesday that nobody on the Eagles liked Pederson's decision.
"Man, if I’m being honest, nobody liked the decision. Nobody. And that’s all I can say," he said.
Sanders has never been one to publicly question or speak out against any decision by the team before.
"I don’t know ... who was the main person behind that decision, but all I know was a lot of people on the team was confused," he said.
That's the story Inquirer Eagles reporter Jeff McLane told, too.
"From what I had learned in my reporting the last two days is that players and coaches were shocked," he told WIP's Angelo Cataldi this week. "Now, some players -- especially the ones on the defensive side -- didn't even know that this was in play, and then the ones on the offensive side, or some of the coaches who had kind of known that this was a possibility, whispers on the sideline -- 'What's going on? What's Doug doing?'"
Wednesday morning, defensive end Brandon Graham said on WIP that he knew Sudfeld was going to play and that he was happy the third-string quarterback had the opportunity.
The Eagles captain said Sanders might have simply missed Pederson’s plan to give Sudfeld playing time in the second half of the game.
"He probably didn’t hear Coach when he was talking about, just, other guys getting an opportunity," Graham said.
Graham disputed the Inquirer report, which indicated that some defensive players were prevented from approaching Pederson to ask about the substitution.
"I was so confused when people said people ... had to get held back, because -- man, that sound crazy," he said.
Graham says he thinks Pederson was playing to win.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press report says quarterback Carson Wentz needs some time to think about his future with the team and that, even though his relationship with the Eagles is supposedly "strained," he hopes his time with them isn’t over.
The report said Wentz has not spoken to team officials yet, and he has declined to talk with the media.