Orlando Scandrick takes aim at Eagles, and Malcolm Jenkins responds
The Philadelphia Eagles were dismantled by the Dallas Cowboys in Week 7, losing 37-10.
The next day, the team released veteran cornerback Orlando Scandrick, the second straight game the Eagles seemingly tried to scapegoat one player for their problems in a loss; a week earlier, Zach Brown was cut after the loss the Minnesota. Scandrick had started the game against Dallas, but played only half of the defensive snaps.
On Friday, he was on FS1’s “Undisputed” and aired some dirty laundry with his now-former team, taking particular aim at general manager Howie Roseman and safety Malcolm Jenkins.
Here are some of the highlights; video of the full interview is below.
Host Skip Bayless asked how surprised Scandrick was the Eagles let him go.
“Very surprised. I had a productive game coming back against the Jets and we go up to Minnesota and we get smashed and we go to Dallas and we get smashed and it felt kind of scapegoat-ish. ... I mean, I didn’t have my best performance [against Dallas], I had some rough moments but who doesn’t have rough moments in this league? But It felt really, really scapegoat-ish. The problem in Philadelphia is much deeper than me.”
Shannon Sharpe asked if Scandrick wanted to elaborate.
“I think they’re having a tough time dealing with success. Whenever you gotta say, ‘Oh, we’re going to get it together.’ ‘Oh, no one believes in us.’ ‘Oh, it’s about us,’ you already don’t (have answers),” Scandrick said.
Scandrick was asked if he was given a reason why he was released and made it clear he’s not a fan of Roseman.
“How it was explained to me from Howie — and I don’t believe anything that Howie says — Howie is one of the people that if he told me it was raining outside, I’d probable get some shorts just in case. He put it to me as they wanted to play some younger players, and they’re a mess on defense and they needed to get some more defensive linemen, so we’ll see how that works out in Buffalo this weekend,” he said.
Last week, there was a report from ESPN’s Josina Anderson that cited an unnamed Eagles player who criticized quarterback Carson Wentz’s play. WIP reporter Howard Eskin tried to out receiver Alshon Jeffrey as Anderson’s source, which both Jeffrey and Anderson denied was the case.
Scandrick said he takes Jeffrey at his word.
“I love Alshon, and I’mm gonna take it for what he said, it wasn’t him, but it came from somewhere,” Scandrick said. “Once again, where there’s smoke there’s fire. That locker room is different. I would tell guys when I came there, I still feel like they’re living on that Super Bowl high. It’s over. You’re living in the past. Some of those guys came in the league and all they experienced was 13-3 and the Super Bowl and they think that’s what it’s all about.”
Scandrick looked at Sharpe. “How many years you play in the league?” he asked. “Fourteen,” Sharpe said. “How many Super Bowls?” Scandrick asked. “Three,” Sharpe said. “How hard was it to get there?” Scandrick said. The 11 years when he did make it to the Super Bowl weren’t successful, Sharpe said.
“And for me, 12 years, no super bowl, no Super Bowl appearances. And some of those guys, they haven’t even faced the harsh reality of a losing season,” Scandrick said. “But at this rate, what’s going on there — the problem is not just fixable by saying ‘we’re all going to stick together.’ You say, ‘we’re all going to stick together, we’re all in this together.’ But then you get Lane [Johnson] saying people’s late to meetings. There’s some accountability issues there and it starts at the top.”
When Sharpe noted that he had a problem with Johnson publicly saying after the loss to Dallas that teammates were late to meetings, Scandrick agreed.
“I was just talking about that to somebody. Why not go to that guy and tell them on the plane?” Scandrick said. “But for me, that was like a masking thing. Lane is a hell of a player, we all can agree with that. He didn’t have a hell of a game on Sunday.
“So instead of going out and attacking somebody being late, the first thing you could have done was looked in the mirror and maybe went to that guy and pulled him to the side and say, ‘Hey, we can’t be late. We gotta get this together, we gotta set examples, we’re the vets on this team.’ Because they’re not talking about a rookie being late, they’re not talking about some guy that’s just a 52nd, 53rd guy on the roster, some guy that doesn’t play being late. That comment is about somebody of some significance [but he doesn’t know who it was], the comment was made, I was cut the next day.”
For his part, Johnson said on Friday that Scandrick was accurate in his assessment, and he shouldn’t have said what he said on Sunday.
After some questions about how Wentz is handling the pressure of being the Eagles’ leader, Scandrick called the quarterback “a great guy...stand up,” and then things turned to the state of the Philly defense.
“I think on defense they’ve stuck together pretty good. There’s some selfish people on that defense though. Absolutely. I think Rasul Douglas, who’s a good friend of mine, I think he took some unwanted heat for some blown coverages on some other people’s selfish play. And we don’t even have to say names at all; they know who they are,” Scandrick said.
Bayless made it clear they were discussing Jenkins.
“I think that when you wear a ‘C’ on your jersey [as a captain], it’s your job to bring guys along, it’s your job that sometimes you have to take [the heat], and you need to bring the thing together,” Scandrick said. “I don’t know if that’s the case. You look at everything that happened — you hold out for a contract, you’re not making any plays, any splash plays, then you go down to Minnesota and you somehow supposed to be on a half of the field and you end up playing a crosser? That’s not a rookie we’re talking about here. It’s a two-time Super Bowl champ.”
Media that cover the Eagles had locker room access after Scandrick’s interview aired, and of course asked Jenkins about what his now-former teammate said.
“I could give two [expletive] about people who aren’t here,” Jenkins said. “For us to move on as a team, we can’t have [expletive] like that in here.”
Scandrick was also asked about Eagles coach Doug Pederson, who early last week said during a radio interview that the Eagles were headed to Dallas to win and take first place in the NFC East, then immediately (and foolishly) backtracked on his own confident words.
“That whole thing was strange, man,” Scandrick said. “Just being part of that Dallas Cowboy organization for so long [Scandrick was drafted by Dallas in 2008 and played there for 10 years], then going and being part of two other organizations, I never really felt at home.
“If I could take back one thing or one regret that I have in my whole entire sports career, it would have been to stay with that Dallas Cowboy organization through thick and thin. I had a long, long conversation with Sean Lee before the game, on the phone, me and Sean are great friends, we had a long conversation that wasn’t even about football, it just was about his loyalty to Dallas and how I was happy for him for grinding though and being healthy and continuing to fight despite what everyone said about him and he was telling me he loves it. He loves being in Dallas, the work that he’s put in with those guys, he loves going to work every day, and I can’t say my last two years were like that.”
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