Philadelphia Eagles' Doug Pederson rips media, says Carson Wentz not cleared

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson speaks to the media at the Super Bowl LII press conference on January 30, 2018 at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/UPI

By The Sports Xchange

An annoyed Doug Pederson lashed out at the media on Sunday, refusing to name a starter for Thursday's season opener when the Philadelphia Eagles open up defense of their Super Bowl title against the Atlanta Falcons.

The Eagles' head coach was particularly perturbed about reports late last week that said Nick Foles would get the start over Carson Wentz.

"First of all, I appreciate y'all putting words in my mouth this week, and, therefore, I'm not going to discuss it," Pederson said.

When asked what words were put in his mouth, he tersely responded, "You saw the reports."

The report came from the NFL Network and NFL.

Pederson did say Wentz had not yet been cleared to participate in contact drills. Last week, Pederson also was annoyed about constant questions about Wentz's health.

On Sunday, he stressed that for the team, it's a definite competitive advantage to keep the quarterback situation under wraps for as long as possible.

"We're trying to win a football game," Pederson said. "I don't want to put my game plan out there for everybody to see it and read it and teams can scheme. It just doesn't make a lot of sense."