Weeks later after a report emerged from the Philadelphia Eagles' nest that things were not all right between oft-injured starting quarterback Carson Wentz and his teammates, the rehabbing QB responded to those criticisms in a meeting with reporters.
"I know who I am, first of all. I know how I carry myself. I know I'm not perfect. I know I have flaws," Wentz told a small group of reporters at Philadelphia's practice facility recently, per ESPN's Tim McManus. "So I'm not going to sit here and say it was inaccurate and completely made up. I'm not going to do that. But at the end of the day, I will say our locker room is really close. If there were guys that had issues, in hindsight, I wish we could have just talked about them. But, again, I don't know how that all happened and everything with that."
The article published two weeks ago described in part that Wentz had "created friction within the offense," so much so that then-Eagles assistants Frank Reich and John DeFilippo had to "rein Wentz in and stop him from going off-point.
An anonymous selection of Wentz's teammates were also quoted as calling the QB "egotistical," "selfish" and "uncompromising."
Wentz did not refute parts of the report, adding that while the story and the sentiments within caught him off guard, the quarterback vowed to use it as motivation to improve his leadership abilities.
"It's never fun to read, but to an extent, you look at it and be like, 'Well, if someone did have this perception of me, why? What have I done wrong? What can I get better at?'" Wentz told reporers. "I realize I have my shortcomings. Yes, I can be selfish. I think we all have selfishness inside of us. There's human elements to that, that I really look at and say, 'Well, I can get better.'
"I'll learn from it and we'll all learn that A, things shouldn't kind of come out the way it did, and B, the pieces that I can learn from it and be a better teammate and player and all that stuff I will grow from. But other than that, just turn the page."
Wentz entered the 2019 offseason rehabbing his second season-ending injury in as many years. His 2017 season was cut short by a devastating knee injury, sidelining him for Nick Foles for Philadelphia's eventual Super Bowl run.
"You go through the [ACL] injury, and you're just 100 percent determined to get back, that's, like, what my mind is on," the signal-caller reflected. "And looking back, were there things that maybe I neglected as a teammate and as a friend because I was just so determined and that's all that mattered?"
Wentz returned in Week 3 of the 2018 season, but was shelved again with back issues with three games remaining, leaving it up to Foles again to ensure Philly's place in the postseason.
For better or worse, depending on how you read the report, Wentz won't have Foles behind him next year. The Super Bowl LII MVP is expected to part ways via the team some how, some way, via release, buyout or most likely tag-and-trade. Then the Eagles will be all Wentz's.
Philadelphia's 2016 second-overall pick is still the face of the franchise and acknowledged to reporters in sum that he won't be undergoing a total personality facelift anytime soon despite the criticism from callers inside the house.
"I'm 26 years old; my personality, to some extent, ain't going to change," he said. "What's gotten me here, what's gotten me successful, I'm not going to say, 'Oh, now I'm going to have this free-spirited, Cali-guy vibe.' That's just not going to change.
"Any time you're a Type A guy, there's a fine line between being pushy and shove-y and humble and humility and walking that line. Definitely learning to navigate that always and never trying to look down on anybody or make it seem like I'm better than anybody. But at the same time, as a Type A, so to speak, confident person that's confident in off-the-field things and then on the field with what we like, that's not going to change. That's not going to go anywhere. I think that's something that is a positive if used correctly."
