Eagles coach Doug Pederson had two different stints as a Packer, totaling eight years, but he never got to start a game there because he was backing up Brett Favre, who never missed a start. Now Pederson is coaching a quarterback he sees as similar to Favre -- and trying to teach him how to have a similar longevity.
Pederson said this morning on PFT Live that Carson Wentz has a similar style of play to Favre and isn’t afraid to mix things up, and the Eagles are working with Wentz on staying healthy while not changing the way he plays.
“He’s definitely a physical football player. I’ve had conversations with him about protecting himself,” Pederson said of Wentz. “I had a chance to play with one of the greatest, one of the toughest quarterbacks to play the game in Brett Favre, and he didn’t shy away from contact too much either. Carson’s just that way. That’s the way he’s built and the way he’s wired. I don’t want to take that edge away, but at the same time we’ve got to be smart and he’s got to be smart.”
Pederson said he doesn’t show Wentz a lot of film of Favre, but he does talk to Wentz about Favre’s approach to the game.
“Just relaying stories and instances and games that I can recall, and taking him through some situations that I watched Brett go through in his career, the eight years I spent in Green Bay,” Pederson said. “You see a little bit of Brett in Carson, the toughness, the mental and physical toughness, the way he can elude the pocket and extend plays, keeping his eyes down the field -- that was one of the things Brett was very good at, making the off-schedule play but at the same time keeping his eyes down the field and trying to throw or extend the play down the field.”
It’s working well for Wentz a year and a half into his NFL career. The Eagles would love to see him stay healthy for anywhere close to as long as Favre did in Green Bay.