Earlier this offseason, there was word from Philadelphia that some in the Eagles organization weren’t thrilled about quarterback Carson Wentz spending time with quarterback coaches Tom House and Adam Dedeaux in California before the start of the team’s offseason workouts.
During a press conference on Monday, offensive coordinator Frank Reich said that such offseason sessions didn’t go on during his playing career but that he had no issue with Wentz scratching “an itch to get better” with the outside help. Reich also shared coach Doug Pederson’s view that Wentz has not made any radical changes.
Reich said that Wentz’s accuracy and pocket awareness have looked good and that the work, which centered on footwork, is just part of the overall progression for a player heading into his second season.
“Some of it is weight transfer,” Reich said in comments distributed by the team. “Obviously we talked about it at some level, and he told me the two or three things that they were talking to him about -- always talking about target line, everybody is always talking about target line. You talk about weight transfer. It’s like a golfer. It’s like a golf swing -- weight transfer, move hips and stuff like that. And so I think that there are things that you can do to kind of practice those movements. Like I said, everything from the technical, mechanical side that I’ve seen with Carson has all been pretty good, and it’s all … I’ve always looked at it like there’s a natural progression with every player, and he was just like every other player who’s coming in as a rookie. Just needs to continue to work on that. I think his footwork has been good.”
Wentz has plenty of company around the league when it comes to visiting House and Dedeaux for offseason work and the on-field work of many of those players has been good. If Wentz’s play this fall lands him in the same boat, there probably won’t be much hand-wringing about how he got there.