Doug Pederson Announces Nick Foles As Starting Quarterback for Sunday

By Gia Lanci, Sports Talk Philly Staff

When Doug Pederson met with the media on Monday, there were a lot of questions about the win against the Rams, the upcoming weeks, injured players and preparation for the games. The first question was what most people were most concerned with: who is going to be the starting quarterback in the forthcoming weeks. He announced that Nick Foles would definitely start this Sunday against the Houston Texans. He said the factors that played into the decision involved, giving Carson another week of rest and just that he is not physically able to return. He seemed confident in Nick Foles’ quarterbacking abilities for the game.

The media was concerned about Carson Wentz and when he was anticipated to come back. Doug made it very clear that Carson Wentz will be week-to-week. He stated that they did meet with doctors, and received “positive feedback”. He was not extremely clear about what exactly that meant. However, he was stern in saying that they will only allow Wentz to come back when the doctors, Carson, and he think he is 100% ready. A question was asked if they would put Carson on injured reserve and he was certain that they would not put him on IR. He noted how engaging Wentz was on the sidelines and how that he is such a leader, injured or not.

When he talked about last week’s game against the Rams, he talked about how he and Mike Groh tried to make a game plan that was really based around Nick. It was based off of things Nick would feel comfortable with and tried to help him out in that way. He said that was the reason for the result of the game against the Rams. He also stated it was a team effort.

The question was brought up if he thinks that the rest of the team stepped up because Nick Foles was the starting quarterback over Wentz. He went around the question a little bit. He talked about how he thought most of the reason they won was because it was a team effort and that the team’s effort was because the place the Eagles are in right now. The pressure that is on the team because of how close the playoffs are is the reason they had the motivation to win the game. However, he did not directly answer the question about the team stepping up because Nick Foles was in instead of Wentz.

He also talked about how a big factor in the win and why they were so composed in the Rams game was because of the push by the coaches to get the leaders talking to the young players. He said he wanted them to show the young players to, “stay engaged, to motivate the young players. To come to work everyday and get excited”. Pederson felt confident with the practices last week, and that their energy was there.

Doug was asked about Avonte Maddox and he had all good things to say about him. That he was a very consistent player, aside from his injury. He stated that he thought he had a good game last night in tough situations. He was also questioned about the rest of the injured players. He said Seumalo is getting better, but may not be ready for Sunday. Pederson seemed confident that Jordan Hicks would be ready soon and is expected to be practicing on Wednesday. Jernigan would also be expected to practice Wednesday. He almost forgot about Sidney Jones and did not have much to say about him other than he is going to be week-to-week.