'He's Not A Locker Room Cancer': Former Eagles' Malcolm Jenkins, Chris Long Offer Insight Into Carson Wentz Saga
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's like a bad celebrity break-up -- Ben and Jen; Justin and Selena; Kim and Kanye; Carson and the Eagles. Now that the two have gone separate ways, everyone is gossiping about their relationship and the parties involved.
There are so many unanswered questions in the Carson Wentz saga. Recently, we got some insight into Wentz with former teammates Chris Long and Malcolm Jenkins on Long's "Green Light" podcast.
"We played with some locker room cancers. The guy is a good dude, he's got things to work on," Long said of Wentz.
"Like you said, he's not a locker room cancer. We played with him and that's not it," Jenkins said.
So what went wrong?
"When he first got to Philly, he didn't have to be a leader, right. We allowed him to just stay in your corner and worry about being a rookie quarterback. That really allowed Carson to just grow of in a pot, per se," Jenkins said.
"If anything, he's a little shy. You'd like to see him reach out more to the other corner of the locker room and that sort of thing," Long said.
Long and Jenkins believe the contrast in personality between Wentz and Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles stunted his growth.
"It's not his fault that Nick Foles is just this guy with crazy magnetism. He's not the greatest quarterback of all time, but he did do those things where he was like a really social dude," Long said.
And the lack of communication extended outside the locker room.
"When you don't handle something and something bubbles and spills over, then you give them the right to write your story without your narrative in it and I think that's really – we've missed Carson's voice in this whole discussion," Jenkins said.
And as for reports that Wentz was resistant to coaching: "He's not the only quarterback who is stubborn, but this has existed as this extreme conversation when he's got things to fix, but I don't ever remember thinking, 'What an [expletive],'" Long said.
"No, never," Jenkins said.
John Madden once said winning is the best deodorant. Jenkins and Long agree that success with the Colts will help Wentz come out of his shell and give him a way to address his shortcomings.
