Roseman says Eagles aren’t talking about trading Wentz ‘right now’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
When asked directly on Monday morning if the Eagles had ruled out the possibility of trading Carson Wentz, general manager Howie Roseman said that’s not something the team is talking about right now.
Those last two words seem to stick out.
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Right now.
“That is not anything that we’re talking about right now,” Roseman said. “We’re talking about a guy that’s immensely talented and has great work ethic and doing whatever we can to put him in the best possible situation to be successful.”
Roseman and Doug Pederson met with reporters for a Zoom media session that lasted around a half hour on Monday morning, the day after the end of their 4-11-1 season. Most of the questions were sent in the direction of Roseman, who hadn’t spoken to reporters since early September, before the season began.
And, obviously, one of the biggest topics of conversation was the future of the quarterback position in Philadelphia.
This weekend a report surfaced from ESPN that the relationship between Wentz and the Eagles (specifically Pederson) was fractured beyond repair and Wentz was expected to request a trade.
Pederson has since said the relationship with Wentz is good but we haven’t heard anything from Wentz, either confirming or denying the report.
While a trade would leave a record sum of dead money in 2021, Wentz’s contract is tradable. And if the Eagles determine they are better off without him moving forward, it is feasible that they trade the guy they once took with the No. 2 pick and then gave a $128 million contract extension.
But on Monday morning, Roseman did nothing but try to reaffirm the organization’s long-standing stance on Wentz.
“In terms of Carson, I don’t think it’s a secret that we moved up for him because of what we thought about him as a person, as a player,” Roseman said. “We gave him that extension because of the same things. And so, when you have players like that, they’re like fingers on your hand. You can’t even imagine that they’re not part of you, that they’re not here. That’s how I feel about Carson.”
Will Roseman chop off his index finger and ship it to Indianapolis (or somewhere else) this offseason? We’ll see.
When asked about the ESPN and the relationship between Wentz and the team, Roseman said they try to stay in communication with their players and the representatives of their players but didn’t want to divulge any of those conversations.
Pederson is obviously back for the 2021 season and there are reasons to question whether or not he’s the right guy to fix Wentz.
For what it’s worth, Pederson again disagreed with the notion that he and Wentz have a broken relationship.
“I’m not going to speak for Carson, obviously, but I can speak for myself,” Pederson said. “Yeah, the relationship is good, is fine and it’s something that we’re going to continue to build upon. Listen, I know Carson is disappointed. It’s not the season he had anticipated, it’s not the season I had anticipated as the head coach. There were a lot of moving parts. It’s not about one guy here. It takes all of us. That’s something that we’ve stressed a lot here.”
