“He hasn’t played. He hasn’t played,” coach Doug Pederson said. “We want to see him get game and live reps. That’s the bottom line.”
That’s a strong sell there by a first-year NFL head coach. But it appears Mychal Kendricks will be the only prospective Eagles starter to play against the Jets, and having him do so smacks of the sort of message-sending test of an athlete’s mettle seen at all levels of sport. If the Eagles were a high school basketball team, Kendricks would be running suicides after practice with the jayvees. If they were a high school swimming team, he’d be cleaning the pool after a meet. It’s difficult not to see this decision as an indication that this new coaching staff is trying to . . . shall we say . . . encourage Kendricks to play through nagging, soft-tissue injuries that he might not have played through in the past.
