February 05, 2021
In our Eagles chat on Wednesday, there were a lot of questions that we could not get to in time or other questions we did answer but could use more color. And so, let's do a mailbag post to answer some of the overflow, as well as some commonly asked questions on Twitter and via email.
Question from Kari: Hey Jimmy, do you think Wentz (or his reps) will make a trade request public? Really getting tired of fans saying the reports are false and "waiting for Wentz to speak." Deshaun Watson made it public, why can't Carson?
I don’t think you can be arguably the worst starting quarterback in the league statistically and publicly demand to be traded. The optics of that would look utterly ridiculous.
But also, the belief here has always been that the Eagles will be more than willing to trade Wentz if an acceptable offer comes along for him, but they’re not just going to give him away for nothing. The minute that Wentz demands publicly to be dealt, the lower his value becomes, and thus, the more unlikely that an offer will come along that the Eagles will find satisfactory.
So perhaps just laying low and saying nothing for now is his best chance of getting what he wants.
Question from Bob Slaney: The Colts offense features a lot of quick hitting passes to the running backs. With Miles Sanders’ struggles in this aspect of his game do you expect the Eagles to draft a running back? Is there any particular back you think would be a good fit for them?
Sanders is their guy. He’s one of the rare good young players on the team, and he’s not about to be replaced anytime soon.
That said, I’m with you that he regressed in the passing game in 2020 after a rookie season in which he was really productive (50-509-3). It’ll be up to Sanders and the new RB coach to work hard at that aspect of his game this offseason, and Sanders has shown in the past that he will acknowledge his faults and fix them.
If he can get back to the receiver he was as a rookie, the Eagles will have a pair of backs in Sanders and Boston Scott who could be effective in an offense that seeks to get them the ball through the air.
I do think the Eagles could draft a running back, but I think they’ll more be in the market for a third running back to replace Corey Clement, perhaps on Day 3.
Question from Flip-a-del-phia: Any chance of a draft day trade involving Carson? Could you see the Birds using Carson to move up and get someone they really like at 3 or 4. Maybe one of the QBs or Chase?
Nope. As we noted in our Wentz contract primer, the team owes him a $10 million bonus on the third day of the new league year, which will be in mid-March. The payment of that bonus serves as something of a deadline of when the Eagles can reasonably trade him.
It’s possible that the Eagles and Wentz could agree to push that bonus date back a bit to buy more time to get a trade done, but I can’t imagine that being delayed into draft weekend in late April. The Eagles will need to know if Wentz is going to be back or not by the time the draft comes around, so they can prepare for it appropriately.
Question from Tim: Can Jordan Mailata play RT?
He filled in at RT against the Football Team Week 1, and started at RT against the Cowboys Week 8. He’s been cross-training at LT and RT for two years, but there’s no question that LT is his stronger position.
Still, he can at least play there if need be, while Andre Dillard showed in 2019 that he cannot.
We actually discussed this on the podcast this week, but if Mailata and Dillard have an open competition for the starting LT job, Mailata might actually get hurt because he’s more versatile than Dillard, and the team could view him as a swing tackle, whereas Dillard is LT or bust.
Question from Ross: Do you think Doug will get a HC position next year, or do you think he’ll be resigned to take an OC position for a year or two before he’s considered a HC candidate again?
I guess that all depends on how many job openings there are. I don’t think he’ll be at the top of any lists, but he’s a Super Bowl winning head coach (and not just one that was carried to a title by a quarterback or something), so I do think he’ll get another head coaching job at some point.
Question from By the Tonner: Stop with “JJAW will make a good tight end.”
Is this The Tonner or a The Tonner imposter?
Anyway, when I say that I think a move to tight end might make some sense for JJAW, it’s only if there’s no question that he’s not going to make it as a wide receiver. To be clear, I don’t actually think he’ll become a good tight end if they decided to try him there.
Question from a guy: Keep Matt Pryor? Really? I'd rather see an inanimate carbon rod than Pryor.
Ha. As I noted in the “Stay or Go: iOL” post, “Jason Peters very likely won't be back. Jason Kelce could retire. Brandon Brooks and Lane Johnson and aging and have significant injury concerns. Ideally, you don't want Pryor to have to play, but he's a body, and the Eagles will likely need bodies.”
Also, the inanimate carbon rod was a national hero.
There’s no shame in being worse than an inanimate carbon rod.
Question from Mig: Jimmy is Mahomes really that good or are the pieces around him just great? I keep seeing him just chuck up balls to players with like 40 yards of separation on each play. I kinda hope they all leave for mega contracts and he has to play with scrubs to see if he really elevates them.
Can’t it be both?
But also, yes, he's awesome.
Question from Hmm: Do you think Brett Favre was actually letting everyone know that Pederson and Wentz weren’t getting along with the comments he made that when he said he would have taken Nick Foles over Wentz? I think he knew it wasn’t going well.
I hadn’t thought of that, but what the hell. We’ll allow this speculation to exist in a mailbag post.
Question from Jimmy’s Shoe Game: What Eagle do you think could give the best performance at a hot dog eating contest? And how many hot dogs could Jimmy eat in 10 minutes?
I’ve heard some crazy stories about how much food Mailata can consume, so if I were drawing up a big board of hot dog eaters, he’d be my top pick.
How many could I eat in 10 minutes? I’ll say four.
Question from PR4419: If you had to host a weekly podcast with a former Eagles player, who would you pick? Who would make the show the most enjoyable? Who would make the show the most successful?
Donnie Jones. Duh.
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