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Jason Kelce Tries to Provide Context on Doug Pederson’s Decision to Pull Jalen Hurts

SGKing

The controversy from the Eagles game continues to chug along, as people are still debating whether or not Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson intentionally put in his backup so they could lose the game. Eagles center Jason Kelce is coming to the defense of his head coach,  and providing some context on Pederson’s decision.

Kecle took to IG to explain:

“Thought I would clear the air just to clarify and more accurately depict what happened during the game on Sunday,” Kelce began. “At the end of the third quarter, I was told on the bench that Sudfeld was going in the game. I went up to Doug and asked him if he was taking Hurts out, he said, ‘Yes, I think Nate’s earned the right to play.’ I said, ‘Everyone else is staying in?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ I then went to find Suddy. Started taking snaps on the sideline with him, called the other linemen over and had them listen to his snap count to make sure everyone was on the rhythm of his cadence, and then went out for the next drive.

“At no point was anything from me or anyone else confrontational. We all knew leading into the game that Sudfeld was told to be ready to play, and that Doug wanted to see what he could do in a game situation. All of us during the week leading up were excited for Nate, a guy that has been with us for four years to get an opportunity in a real game to show the world what he can do. We all have complete confidence in Nate as a player, there’s a reason he’s been here this long, and a reason the team brought him back. And that’s because we feel like Nate is a guy we can win with.

“I understand the optics of how it looked, and I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little surprised given the circumstances that the move happened when it did, but every one of us did our best, and all of us believe we can win with Nate Sudfeld. It was a difficult situation be be put into, especially when you have a 10-year veteran center who doesn’t snap the ball accurately on your second drive of the game. I know we can win games with Nate because I know Suddy can play. It didn’t work out Sunday, but as always, that’s not just on him.”

Funny enough, a recent video of Kelce surfaced talking about tanking:

“I think at all times in the NFL, the focus should be winning the football game,” he said. “Nothing else takes precedence. No player evaluation, no amount of curiosity from anybody within the organization — everything is focused, in my opinion in this league, upon winning games. You see a lot of losing teams sustain losses for a number of years when they have bad cultures. They have cultures where you don’t try and win every week. Where you’re trying to think, ‘What are we going to do in the draft? What are we doing in free agency? What can we do over here?’

“In football — this isn’t basketball — one draft pick isn’t going to make us a Super Bowl champion. It might be a big start to a Super Bowl championship. But it’s always going to be about the team. That’s the greatest thing about this sport. And in culture, and the way guys fight, and the way guys go to prepare, and the way guys go about their business is a huge reason for success in this league and in this sport.”

The Eagles will have a long offseason ahead. No one is going to forget about this for a long time.

No matter what really happened, the optics on this are too bad to ignore.

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