April 17, 2018
The Eagles' 2018 season officially gets underway this week – well, technically their 2018 offseason – as players descend upon the NovaCare Complex for their first team workouts of the spring. And with the workouts comes media availability.
Among the first up for the Birds was quarterback Carson Wentz. The others were Malcolm Jenkins, Jordan Hicks and Zach Ertz – basically the four captains of the team. Notably missing from that group was Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles, which, reading between the lines, tells you all you need to know about whose team this is.
Narrator: It was Wentz's team.
Despite being unable to finish an MVP-caliber season (and the ensuing Super Bowl run) because of a torn ACL suffered in the Eagles' Week 14 win over the Rams, Wentz remains optimistic about his chances of being ready for the opener of his third NFL season.
"We started – and I'm not going to get into real specifics with rehab and everything – but we've started the running progression and all those things, so I'm feeling good," the Eagles quarterback said Tuesday when asked about his rehab. "I'm feeling good with where I'm at and just trying to stay the course. But, like I said late last season, it's such a fluid process that it's hard to put a time frame and a time table on these things. I wish I knew as well.
"But things are going well and I'm happy with where I'm at. ... You guys saw me [a few] weeks ago, I was throwing and everything. So just to start to be able to do a lot of those things again is a good sign."
Wentz added that his goal remains to be ready for the Eagles' season opener, which will reportedly be an NFC Championship rematch against the Vikings, a game Wentz never got a chance to be a part of, instead forced to watch Foles dominate from the sideline.
With his rehab going smoothly, the 25-year-old will have to be careful not to let his aggressive nature take over.
"It's part of it," Wentz admitted. "It's part of the process of, if something feels really good, I'm like, 'Alright, let's do it.' But you've just got to stay the course. And you've seen the horror stories of people coming back too soon and those things, so I can assure you that I'll be smart about it."
That being said, Wentz doesn't seem like he's going to change his sometimes reckless style, one that many believe contributed to his injury in the first place.
Wentz: I’m not going to change my style of play ... there’s things I can learn but changing my style of play that’s not going to happen.
— Derrick Gunn (@RealDGunnNBCS) April 17, 2018
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