The Philadelphia Eagles want to avoid calling any designed runs for Carson Wentz in the early part of the season.

"Without giving away the game plan? No, I'm not," Doug Pederson said of designing runs for the rookie quarterback. "Now, this week for us, it's our fourth game of the season. As a staff, we've got to be extremely smart on how we handle that aspect of the game.

"Probably the deeper as you go into your regular season, if you are in a position to make the postseason, you might increase that a little bit. One of the things that I think defenses sometimes forget -- I'm not saying they forget it completely -- is the quarterback and the ability to run."

The Kansas City Chiefs drew up designed runs for Alex Smith last season with Pederson as offensive coordinator. Smith rushed for a career-high 498 yards in 2015.

"I think that was the advantage to us in Kansas City with Alex Smith, and his strength was the ability to run the football," Pederson said. "As we got deeper into the season, we dialed up a few more of those for him. I think it could be the same type of formula with Carson. Obviously, you want to protect him and you want to get through a full 16-game schedule. But I think the deeper you go, you increase it a little bit more."

Wentz said at North Dakota State he had 8-10 designed runs a game.