Doug Pederson keeps Carson Wentz off field as Eagles open preseason

Carson Wentz was not in Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s quarterbacking rotation Thursday night as the Eagles kicked off their preseason against the Tennessee Titans at Lincoln Financial Field.

This was not a big shock. When Pederson and Wentz last spoke with reporters, on Tuesday, Pederson said he didn’t know if Wentz would take the field, and indicated it wouldn’t be for long if he did.

Wentz said that he wouldn’t mind playing, but that preseason game action wasn’t necessary to be ready for the regular season, which starts Sept. 8 at home against Washington.

Wentz missed the preseason and the first two regular-season games last year as he recovered from ACL surgery. This year, recovering from a back injury, he has been a full participant in training camp practice. But the trend around the league has been toward using key players less and less in meaningless games.

Also sitting out Thursday were most of the other offensive starters. Nate Sudfeld started at quarterback, and before getting injured he authored a pretty 75-yard touchdown pass to Marken Michel in the second quarter.

The defense was a more complicated picture, because several starters are still rehabbing injuries (such as defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, with a foot problem) and they weren’t going to play anyway. Regardless, by the second Tennessee series, no one on the field for the Eagles projects as a starter.

“We have a lot of bodies we want to see in this game,” Pederson said Tuesday, when asked about playing starters.

In addition to Sudfeld, who injured his left wrist, defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway went down on a 37-yard Jeremy Nichols run. The Eagles announced that Ridgeway was being evaluated for a head injury.

Later in the first half, the team announced that defensive end Daeshon Hall had suffered a shoulder injury. He later returned and recovered a fumble.

Receiver Charles Johnson suffered an injury to his left foot in the second half.

Ridgeway, 24, was acquired in a trade with the Colts in April. Hall, also 24, played in three Eagles games after being signed from the Texans’ practice squad last October.

Safety Tre Sullivan not only seemed to rank behind Andrew Sendejo and Blake Countess in the hierarchy, he badly missed a tackle on the 37-yard run that set up a Titans touchdown. ... Eagles corner Josh Hawkins was flagged for lowering his head on a tackle. ... Eagles left guard Matt Pryor seemed to struggle in the first half. ... Donnel Pumphrey fumbled a kickoff just before halftime but rookie wideout J.J. Arcega-Whiteside recovered for the Eagles, ... Then running back Josh Adams fumbled the ball to the Titans on the ensuing possession. ... Dallas Goedert caught three passes on five targets for 50 yards before sitting down. ... Eagles offensive tackles Jordan Mailata and Andre Dillard seemed to hold their own.