Pederson Takes Aim at Media, Refuses to Confirm Foles as Starter

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - Angered by an NFL Media report claiming that Nick Foles would be the starter on Thursday night against the Atlanta Falcons, a cranky Doug Pederson refused to address his quarterback situation at his press conference before practice Sunday.

“First of all, I appreciate you all putting words in my mouth this week, therefore I’m not going to discuss it,” Pederson said while glaring at reporters.

The acrimony stems from an Ian Rapoport report claiming that Foles would be the guy on the heels of Dr. James Bradley, Carson Wentz's surgeon, preaching patience with the superstar, who is still less than nine months off ACL and LCL surgery.

The original claim by NFL Media was then aggregated by many outlets, typical behavior in the modern environment because the league encourages the feeding of information to its employees first.

"What is the point of this? Pederson asked rhetorically. "It’s my decision."

Bradley's take when talking with John Clark on NBCSports Philadelphia foreshadowed a cautious approach.

“What’s a few games (compared to) 12 to 15 years?” said Bradley.

Pederson did admit Wentz is still not cleared for contact with the opener looming in four days and also said he believed the uncertainty of actually naming a starting QB is a competitive advantage.

"I’m trying to win a football game I don’t want to put my game plan out there for everybody to see it, read it, teams can scheme, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense, you know?” the coach said.

Later Pederson spoke to the Atlanta-area media on a conference call and again refused to give away any proprietary information.

“You know I haven’t made the decision publicly; it’s an internal thing,” Pederson said. “We’re going to take each day as it comes, and we’ll find out later this week.”

His counterpart, Falcons coach Dan Quinn, showed off a sense of humor in his own conference call with the Philadelphia-area media.

"I understand you have quarterback questions, so ... Matt Ryan will be our quarterback.”

Quinn also downplayed any competitive advantage the Eagles might have by refusing to confirm the starter.

"So, we're just preparing for the offense," he said. "[It] would be different if it was Randall [Cunningham] and Jaws [Ron Jaworski]."

AJAYI MISSES PRACTICE

Before the team's practice session Pederson said running back Jay Ajayi, who has been dealing with a lower-body injury, was doing "great" and would practice this week.

He might but he didn't Sunday as Ajayi was spotted arriving late and wearing a baseball cap.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen