Vikings OC John DeFilippo, who was the QB coach in Philly for two seasons, returns to Philadelphia on Sunday as Minnesota travels to Lincoln Financial Field to battle the Eagles in a rematch of last season’s NFC title game.
Last year, Eagles QB Carson Wentz was on his way to an MVP season before he tore his ACL and LCL in Week 14 against Rams. In the 13 games he appeared in last season, Wentz played with confidence and a swagger that seem to motivate his teammates.
As the QB coach in Philadelphia(2016-17), Defilippo was a big part of the development of Wentz. Before taking the job with the Vikings, Defilippo was with Wentz for two years and helped turn the third-year player into one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL.
Today, Defilippo discussed what makes Wentz so special.
“The first thing is the amount of maturity he has for his age. Not only football maturity but maturity in general,” Defilippo said. “He is very, very confident in himself but to a point where it rubs off on others in a good way, not a bad way. The whole team just kind of felt his confidence and felt his swagger and juice and fed off that. And really just his freak athleticism to be quite honest with you. The guy is 6-5 and 240-something pounds and can run like that, throw like that, throw off balance, get out of traffic, extend plays, There are some plays you watched last year, and not a lot of guys get out of that. The last thing is just his football knowledge for a rookie. Even when he came in, I don’t want to say it was off the charts, but it was pretty close for a rookie. It was pretty good. Real good, actually.”
Wentz was great last season, and physically it appears that he is all the way back from the injury. Moving forward, the Eagles will have to do a better job of protecting Wentz(sacked six times in two games), and Wentz is going to have to do a better job of protecting himself, but if he stays healthy, expect Wentz to have another tremendous season.
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