By Patrick Del Gaone, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Green Bay's superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers will don a distinctive gold jacket in Canton, Ohio one day, that according to Eagles' head coach and former Packers' quarterback, Doug Pederson.
Rodgers has long been a thorn in the side Philadelphia's defense. The former Cal Bear has won all three of his starts against the Eagles, including a 53-20 drubbing at Lambeau Field in 2014.
"In my humble opinion, he's gonna be a Hall of Fame quarterback," Pederson said. "He's playing extremely well right now, their record may not show that, but he's playing at a high level."
The Eagles will look to garner their fifth home victory in as many attempts when they host the reeling Green Bay Packers at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night.
Given the experience accumulated by rookie gunslinger Carson Wentz over his first ten starts, the first-year coach was asked if he's capable of carrying the offense at this point in the season.
"I think he is," Pederson said. "We've had to do it already this year. He's been able to [throw] 40-plus pass attempts and carry us a little bit down the stretch. He's accustomed to it. The deal with us now is we've gotta be a little bit more efficient earlier in football games, and not turn the ball over, not put ourselves in a bind, stay manageable, control our third downs. Just take care of the ball. We gotta try to create some turnovers on defense, like we were earlier in the season. That's another big part of this whole process."
The status of Eagles' halfbacks Ryan Mathews (MCL sprain) and Darren Sproles (rib) was clarified this morning after both sustained injuries against Seattle in last week's slugfest. Mathews will be held out, meaning rookie Wendell Smallwood could receive a heavy workload in a favorable matchup against Don Capers' struggling defense.
"Ryan Mathews hasn't practiced all week, we're gonna rule him out," Pederson said. "He had a pretty significant knee [injury], I went back and looked at the film, it's pretty significant, so it's just not there yet. [Sproles] has felt really good the last couple of days, so I don't see anything that would keep me from giving him the same amount of work in this game."
"[Smallwood] has responded well, the biggest thing now is getting [him] more work. Protection, all of those things get amplified a little bit. All season he's done a good job, so I would expect nothing less. The comforting thing for me is he's done it before [against Pittsburgh]. Even last week he had a little bit of an extended role, so I feel comfortable with where he's at and what he's done."
You can watch the full press conference from Pederson below.
