Wentz Hires Mechanics Coach

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - The second half of Carson Wentz’s rookie season was marred by eroding mechanics and the young signal caller has made a move to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

The Eagles’ second-year quarterback will be working with former major league pitcher Adam Dedeaux this offseason when he is unable to practice at the team facility due to CBA restrictions.

The move is a positive one as Wentz’s mechanics were a theme dating back to when the Eagles drafted him at No. 2 overall out of North Dakota State in April.

Doug Pederson often talked about Wentz needing to improve his footwork and the talk out of Cleveland was that the quarterback-hungry Browns took a pass on the opportunity to draft him because of what they considered was a slow-release time.

All that talk looked silly when Philadelphia roared out to a 3-0 start and Wentz looked like the second coming but as the opposition got more film on the signal caller, things became tougher and Wentz developed some poor habits regarding footwork while on the move and the less-than-compact windup that Cleveland was concerned with.

Changing mechanics, which are essentially muscle memory and in a player’s DNA, can be very difficult and the lack of practice time due to the restrictions of the current CBA have turned private coaching into a cottage injury.

Dedeaux is a pupil of another former pitcher turned QB mentor, Tom House, and the two have worked with many top-tier quarterbacks including future Hall of Famers Tom Brady and Drew Brees, as well as Andy Dalton.

The resume isn’t all peaches and cream, however, as they tried to help Tim Tebow as well but the former Heisman Trophy winner was never able to fix his elongated throwing motion. Meanwhile, another recent pupil, Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles, had a troubling breakdown in mechanics last season.

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