Moments after the Eagles clinched the NFC East with a Week 14 victory over the Rams, Nick Foles and Alshon Jeffery jogged off the field and under the tunnel on their way to the visitors locker room at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Left tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai stopped to hand his game-worn gloves to a fan. Chris Long spent a few minutes catching up with ex-teammate, Robert Quinn. And Brandon Graham had a giant grin on his face as he waved goodbye to the crowd.

When they all finally got back to the locker room, Carson Wentz was there to greet them — right inside the door at the entrance.

“He was saying ‘congrats’ to everyone, just trying to keep the mood upbeat, not bringing anyone down,” says Zach Ertz. “We had just won the NFC East so he didn’t want the focus to be on him, like he never does. And that’s why we love him as a leader.”

The game clock showed 3:55 in the third quarter at the exact moment when Wentz dove for the end zone and tore the ACL in his left knee. He stayed on the ground for fewer than five seconds after getting sandwiched by Mark Barron and Morgan Fox. Isaac Seumalo and Corey Clement helped Wentz up. He looked to the sideline, tapped his left leg with his hand to indicate where the injury was and got back in the huddle. Wentz stayed in the game for four more plays and threw a touchdown to Jeffery on fourth down before eventually being escorted to the locker room with a white towel draped over his head.

On the sideline, as the Eagles rallied to a 43-35 victory, some teammates received word that the news was not good, that Wentz’s season was most likely over. When center Jason Kelce saw Wentz, he didn’t know what to tell the quarterback.

“At that point, I had already heard (the outlook),” he says. “So I just went up to him and was like, ‘Sorry.’

Kelce paused as he re-lived the moment in his head.

“I don’t know,” he continues. “I don’t want to get too much into it. But it just stinks.”

Malcolm Jenkins has been charged with keeping the team focused and confident despite losing Wentz. In his post-game speech to teammates, he immediately addressed the injury.

“We all hurt for him,” Jenkins says. “All I could tell him was that I loved him. I could tell that he was proud of us for rallying and winning that game. And you could tell it hurt him — not necessarily for him but the fact that he wouldn’t be able to continue to take this journey with us — at least on the field. That’s the biggest thing about it that sucks.”

After the game, a golf cart drove Wentz up the ramp outside the locker room. He had a black brace on his left knee. Wentz got off the cart under his own power and limped to the bus. He sat there for about 50 minutes with teammates and coaches before they left for the airport.

On the plane ride back to Philadelphia, Wentz reminded right tackle Lane Johnson that his stat line would have looked a lot better had it not been for Johnson’s penalties.

“I ran in two touchdowns today, and you took ‘em both away,” Wentz joked.

Asked about that later in the week, Johnson smiles. “I told him, ‘Tough shit.’ Without me, he don’t get in the end zone.”

In the hours after finding out that his MVP-caliber season was likely over, Wentz’s teammates said they could tell how disappointed the quarterback was, even if he didn’t show it.

“He tried looking as normal as possible, but you just know,” says wide receiver Torrey Smith. “To see that happen to him, it’s tough. It’s always bigger than the game. Yes, he’s arguably the MVP of the league, but to see that, the way that happened, little fluke injury, it’s tough. His head was held high. And he was cheering us on because we wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for him.”

Three days later, Wentz underwent surgery in Pittsburgh. After the procedure, he FaceTimed his teammates, who were beginning their week of practice at the NovaCare Complex. Wentz paused during the conversation to order a burger, but then he had a question for backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld.

“He was trying to figure out some of our new plays that we put in,” says Sudfeld, who described Wentz as “loopy.”

“It was like the first question. He’s like, ‘So what’s this new play I saw in the emails?’ I was like, ‘Are you sure you want to know right now?’”

During his sophomore campaign, Wentz threw a franchise-record 33 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. His passer rating from Year 1 to Year 2 skyrocketed from 79.3 to 101.9. And the Eagles went 11-2 in the 13 games that he started.

On Sunday, the Eagles held on for a 34-29 win over the New York Giants to improve to 12-2. Foles threw four touchdowns, and the team clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. With one more victory, they’ll lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The players realize the opportunity in front of them, and many fans are choosing to enjoy the ride for now, rather than focus on what might have been lost that afternoon in L.A.

But Wentz is the face of the franchise. He is the biggest reason why owner Jeffrey Lurie can be confident that his organization should be competing for Super Bowls for years to come, and he is The Athletic Philadelphia’s 2017 Person of the Year.

“He really is something special — not just athletically, but between the ears,” says Long, who’s played 10 years in the NFL. “That’s what makes him really good.”

‘A very quiet confidence’

Before the 2016 draft, general manager Howie Roseman, head coach Doug Pederson, offensive coordinator Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo visited with Wentz in Fargo, North Dakota.

That’s when they administered their first test.

“Coach DeFilippo would get on the board and install four or five plays out of our offense,” Pederson says. “Then basically erase the board. We would put the video on and start talking about his offense and go about another 30 minutes and then go, ‘Hey, Carson, get on the board and tell me those five plays again.’ You can test the recall and you can test memory and get a good feel for how a guy retains information that way.”

When asked earlier this season about the meeting, Wentz downplayed the whole thing, saying he didn’t recall too many of the details.

But pressed about the specific plays that DeFilippo put on the board, he admitted, “I (still) remember a couple of them, actually.”

When the Eagles drafted Wentz, Philadelphians learned that he was the valedictorian of his high school and maintained a 4.0 GPA through his senior year of college. Those around him marvel at his football IQ and believe that the more he sees in the NFL, the better he’ll get.

Tight end Trey Burton hangs out often with Wentz and Ertz, and the pair will start going over specific details from practices that took place months ago or games from last season. “They’ll even talk about down and distance and leverage — crazy stuff like that,” Burton says. “Outside leverage, doing this and doing that. I’m like, ‘Bro, how do you guys remember that stuff?’

“He’ll remind you of what you did a couple weeks ago and be like, ‘Do that again.’ I’m like, ‘Umm, let me think about that. OK, yeah I remember what I did.’”

Every Friday, DeFilippo hands his quarterbacks a test that also serves as a tip sheet. It’s 20 to 30 pages and about 55 questions with photos and text containing information about the upcoming opponent. If the defense is showing a certain look pre-snap, how should they adjust the protection? If Wentz reads zone coverage on a specific passing concept, where should he go with the ball? If a cornerback is playing a specific leverage, how is the receiver supposed to adjust his route?

The quarterbacks fill out the test — which always ends with five random trivia questions — individually and then go over it on Saturday nights before games.

The preparation has helped Wentz accelerate his mastery of situational football. With him at quarterback, the Eagles averaged 5.42 points per red zone trip (first in the NFL), and 49.2 percent of Wentz’s third-down throws resulted in a first down (also tops in the league).

“Carson has a very quiet confidence in himself, and I think he appreciates being coached hard,” DeFilippo says. “I think he sees himself getting better and our team getting better because he’s getting better. That’s the most important thing.”

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His own worst critic

After games, Wentz often needs to find a mirror to get his tie on straight before his press conference. And even though he played basketball in high school, his jumper is a work in progress.

“It’s really weird,” Burton says. “He has to fade away every time he shoots it.”

Wentz is not perfect, and he’s far from a finished product. Following the Eagles’ 24-10 loss to the Seahawks in Week 13 — probably his shakiest outing of the season — Wentz stood behind the podium in the media room at CenturyLink Field knowing the questions before they were even asked.

“Tough to do that and expect to win. … You just can’t put it on the ground,” Wentz said when asked about a key fumble near the end zone.

And the early miss on a deep ball to Nelson Agholor?

“I’ve got to make that throw,” he said without hesitating.

Following the game, the Eagles flew to southern California to practice in Anaheim before facing the Rams. Wentz’s teammates were asked if it was meaningful to have a quarterback who held himself accountable — both publicly and privately.

“He’s probably harder on himself than anybody else is,” Jenkins says. “Everything he’s done this year, I could care less about that.”

Adds Kelce, “I don’t think that he owes anybody anything. The bottom line is we’re at where we’re at in this season because of the way he’s played. He’s been lights out for us this year, so I don’t think anybody’s looking for anything from him. We all have full confidence that he’s hard enough on himself that he’s going to be getting things right that he needs to.”

On Tuesdays during the season, Wentz, Foles, Sudfeld, DeFilippo and Reich go over film and make corrections. Even as Wentz was unleashing four-touchdown performances (four in his last nine games), he made a habit of pointing out his mistakes before anyone else.

“He’ll say something (like), ‘I need to make that’ even before I say it,” says DeFilippo. “If he misses a throw or it’s on the back pad instead of the front pad and it’s a catch-and-tackle instead of a catch-and-run, he’ll say, ‘Yeah, I need to get my eyes out in front.’ So he’s very self-critical, which I think all great quarterbacks have that quality. All the great quarterbacks I’ve been around and seen, they don’t think they have all the answers, and Carson’s one of those guys.”

Anyone paying attention can see Wentz’s natural talent — how he spins out of would-be sacks or successfully delivers lasers into tight windows in the red zone. But for DeFilippo, the focus is in the details. How Wentz carries out fakes, his urgency when he pulls the ball out of the running back’s gut, the timing of when he wants the ball snapped on jet motion.

“He carries out his fakes better than anybody I’ve ever seen,” says Reich, who played with Jim Kelly and coached Philip Rivers. “I think that helps us. You don’t notice it a lot of times, but it’s those little things, the cumulative effect of those things if we run play action, if he ever keeps (the ball) off of that.

“He takes a lot of pride, and it’s one of the things that I think has helped him develop. He works very hard, and he doesn’t take plays off in practice. I’ve never seen a quarterback carry out fakes like he carries out fakes and how serious he takes his ball-handling and every aspect of it.”

DeFilippo is demanding, but with Wentz, he has a quarterback who is self-critical, yet even-keeled. After he fails to identify a blitz or misses an easy throw, Wentz feels natural frustration like any quarterback. But he doesn’t let it affect him on the next play.

“I think Carson has a perfect temperament for when he makes a bad play,” DeFilippo says. “I think he’s upset with himself. Some young quarterbacks that I’ve been around are the first to point the finger in another direction. You’ll never see that out of him.

“I think he has the perfect mindset of being upset with himself but at the same time being able to move on in a timely fashion. Because he knows if he harps on a play for too long, it’s just going to hurt our football team.”

Adds Sudfeld, “Carson is his own biggest coach. He’s the most critical on himself. So nothing Flip (DeFilippo) says gets under his skin. Nobody tries to get under his skin. I don’t think they could anyway. Carson will get frustrated at himself if he did something bad, but he stays pretty level-headed.”

Owning the offense

At North Dakota State, Wentz spent three years as a backup. When he finally got a chance to start, his offensive coordinator Tim Polasek wanted to test his mental acumen, so he would script a handful of plays each day that just had a formation and “Carson” next to them.

Polasek knew their system was going to call for Wentz to make adjustments at the line of scrimmage and was anxious to see how the quarterback would respond.

“I just wanted to see where he was mentally and what his objective was going to be in any situation,” Polasek says. “Was it going to be for the betterment of the team? Or was he always going to go to throws? We tried to cultivate an atmosphere for him that he wasn’t only going to understand the system, but he was going to own it and make it his own, take advantage of it. And it was so clear to us that he was going to be able to do that.”

In the national championship game against Jacksonville State, Wentz hit on one of his favorite red-zone plays that called for the tight end to run an option route. After the drive, as soon as Wentz got to the sideline, he got on the headset and told Polasek to call the same play later. Wentz said he would just add a motion or a shift to it the next time to make it look different to the defense.

Polasek took Wentz’s advice, and later in the game when North Dakota State was in the red zone, they completed a pass on the same play.

“That was in the middle of a national title game,” Polasek says. “That’s just how sharp he is.”

How much did Wentz love that specific play? Earlier this season, he begged Eagles coaches to install it into their offense. Wentz called North Dakota State to get film of the play. He showed it to Pederson and the offensive coaches and explained why he liked it.

They rep’d the play in practice. And the Eagles ended up scoring on it multiple times this season.

Wentz’s influence on the offense has been obvious all year. Pederson employed a “take-it” system where Wentz left the huddle with multiple options, assessed the defense and made the final play call. Teammates have credited him with getting the offense in the right run looks. And Smith said a degree of the red-zone success has been due to Wentz making checks at the line of scrimmage.

In college, Wentz would often text Polasek late Monday night with third-down ideas for the gameplan the following week.

With the Eagles, Wentz and DeFilippo often go back and forth on how to attack blitz schemes when opponents are in their sub packages. At both levels, coaches have acknowledged that Wentz essentially serves as an additional member of their staffs.

“He made you be a better coach and a more detailed coach every day,” says Polasek, who now coaches at Iowa. “Because he was going to be on top of it. You had better be sharp knowing your stuff. Otherwise, his idea was going to be the best.”

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Where he goes from here

During a sunny December afternoon in Anaheim, Lurie and Roseman stood on the sideline to observe practice on the converted baseball field at Angel Stadium.

Donovan McNabb was Lurie’s first true franchise quarterback, and he helped guide the Eagles to the Super Bowl. Lurie knows Wentz has the talent to do the same and may even be the guy to get him his first Lombardi Trophy.

Roseman was stripped of input on personnel when Chip Kelly was the head coach. When Roseman got back in the driver’s seat after Kelly was fired, he executed a series of moves to land the Eagles the No. 2 pick so they could gamble on Wentz. In an industry that doesn’t offer many second and third chances, being wrong could have cost Roseman his career. But he was right about Wentz, and now he has job security after having successfully filled the most important spot on the roster.

Fans — and even some within the organization — had questions about Pederson entering this season. But he’s helped Wentz develop into one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL, and most importantly, the Eagles have won games. It’d be no surprise if Pederson earned Coach of the Year honors for the job he’s done.

Other members of the coaching staff, like DeFilippo, could be in their final weeks with the Eagles. It’s possible that another organization swoops in with an offer to be a head coach.

And then there are the players. Jeffery had to settle for a one-year deal as a free agent last offseason. Earlier this month, he signed a four-year, $52 million deal to remain in Philadelphia.

“It was a huge factor,” Jeffery said when asked about having Wentz as his quarterback. “For a second-year player, his maturity level is up there with some of the best, some of the greats.”

Wentz’s estimated recovery time is six to nine months. The longer end of that range would be around Week 1 of the 2018 season. There’s no guarantee that he’ll be the same athlete right away next season. And nothing is guaranteed in the NFL where the violence seems to get more intense and devastating each year. But Wentz doesn’t turn 25 until later this month, and those around him are confident that his best football is ahead of him.

“Carson’s a faithful guy, and he truly believes that everything happens in order and for a reason,” Jenkins says. “We don’t always understand it, and sometimes it is tough digesting it. But I think at the end of the day, he understands that he’s a blessed individual. Being injured, being healthy, that doesn’t change that.”

This won’t be the first time Wentz has to rehab from a significant injury. During his senior season at North Dakota State, he missed eight games with a broken wrist. Wentz was cleared to play the week of the national title game and helped lead the Bison to a 37-10 victory.

“He could have easily said, ‘Heck with it. I’ve got a bright future. I’m going to go on and do great things. I’ve just got to worry about me,’” says Polasek. “He was there at the facility, at meetings, really grinding to be ready to go when his number got called again.

“By the time we’d go out to the walkthrough, Carson had already been dripping, soaking with sweat.”

In the weeks ahead, the Eagles will try to make a Super Bowl run with Foles. Wentz’s presence will continue to be an important factor around the team. And once the offseason arrives, the condition of his left knee will dominate just about every conversation surrounding the team.

“He’s the ultimate teammate,” Johnson says. “He sacrifices everything for the team. It’s unfortunate, the injury he had, because he was having such a great year. But he’s a guy who’s going to come back stronger.”

(Top photo: Rich Schultz/Getty Images)