Eagles’ Stefen Wisniewski feels like his benching wasn’t performance

Wisniewski and the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff aren’t on the same page when it comes to the starting left guard’s benching. After the Eagles’ loss to the Vikings on Sunday Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys Stitched , Wisniewski told the Inquirer that he felt like he wasn’t replaced by Isaac Seumalo because he’s been struggling.Wisniewski doubled down on this stance via his official Twitter account.Doug Pederson was asked about Wisniewski’s comments during his Monday press conference. The Eagles head coach disagreed with the player’s assessment.So, what’s the deal here?Let’s start by examining Wisniewski’s self-assessment. I don’t think it’s accurate to say he was playing “pretty well.” In the final start before his benching, we saw him get worked by Titans defensive lineman Jurrell Casey. But on the whole, he wasn’t flat out terrible to the point where benching him was a no-brainer. Prior to this week, Wisniewski ranked 32nd out of 56 guards in PFF’s pass blocking metric. It could be worse.Wisniewski didn’t offer insight into his “theories” on why he was benched but we might be able to take some educated guesses here. Starting with comments made by former Eagles president Joe Banner over the past few months. These quotes come from his interviews with The Athletic.From August 27:From September 12: From October 4:Banner specifically singled out Wisniewski in three different interviews. Friend of BGN Tyler Aston had a good take on this.So, who was Banner hearing from? I don’t know for sure, but I might be able to guess where the displeasure about Wisniewski was ultimately coming from.Let’s go back to June 2015. Remember when Evan Mathis was holding out from the team and ultimately got cut? A lot of people point to that as another example of Chip Kelly unwisely jettisoning talent from the roster. But my understanding was that Chip was hardly the only motivating factor behind Mathis getting cut. I heard that Jason Peters didn’t like playing next to Mathis because of the guard’s playing style. Former Eagles All-Pro tackle Tra Thomas, who was on Kelly’s coaching staff for a couple years, once explained this in more detail:It was easy to see that Peters wasn’t really concerned about Mathis being absent from the team.During a BGN Radio radio show appearance earlier this year (of which I was part of) Andre Dillard Jersey Color Rush , Thomas had mentioned something about Peters not being over the moon about playing next to Wisniewski. I believe Thomas mentioned Peters believing Wisniewski’s play style led to Peters getting hurt last year. (Apologies for the lack of specifics here but the audio has since been deleted.)In any case, it doesn’t seem crazy to theorize that Wisniewski is Peters’ new Mathis. And it’s not hard to believe that Peters has the kind of influence on the team to encourage changes considering his unique “best friend” relationship with team owner Jeffrey Lurie.If I had to guess, I would think Wisneiwski feels he’s being benched because of a political reason like this instead of something strictly performance-based. The last time Antonio Brown posted a behind-the-scenes recording, it was from the Steelers’ locker room and Mike Tomlin was not amused. Now Brown had done it again, and given fans an interesting look into his conversations with agent Drew Rosenhaus before he was traded to the Raiders.The audio, which Brown provided to the Boomin Experience podcast, reveals that Rosenhaus believed the Raiders’ interest was declining before the trade actually happened.“Oakland, I think, is fading. I kind of get the sense that they’re fading a little bit Cheap Andre Dillard Jersey ,” Rosenhaus told Brown.Rosenhaus thought instead that the Eagles or Patriots might be the teams to acquire Brown. The audio also confirms that Brown had no interest in playing in Buffalo, despite reports that the Bills and Steelers came close on a trade.“When the Bills called me today they said, ‘If we make the trade, what are you guys looking for?’ I wouldn’t even give them a number because I know you don’t want to go there,” Rosenhaus told Brown.Rosenhaus said there were six teams showing interest in a trade, and that he was pushing the Steelers to trade Brown to a good team with a good quarterback.“The teams that want you right now are New England, Philadelphia, Tennessee, Washington and Buffalo Andre Dillard Jersey 2019 , with Oakland still in the picture,” Rosenhaus said.Both Rosenhaus and Brown seemed to think the trade compensation to the Steelers was going to be higher than it was, as they discussed the possibility of teams trading two first-round picks to the Steelers for Brown. In the end, the Raiders gave up only a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick.Rosenhaus said he put Steelers G.M. Kevin Colbert in touch with Bill Belichick but thought the Steelers might be hesitant to trade him to the Patriots. Rosenhaus also said the Steelers had shown an eagerness to get a deal done.“The Steelers have been good communicators with me. We’ve talked a couple times every day,” Rosenhaus said.The audio is a fascinating look at how Brown and Rosenhaus went through the process of orchestrating the trade, and Brown’s lucrative contract extension.