In this article, I will take an in-depth look at the Eagles' current QB situation and give my insights as an avid Eagles fan.
Carson Wentz - Past to Present
Carson Wentz has had a long journey since his rookie season in 2016. Even in 2016, Carson Wentz showed flashes of greatness and hope for the Philadelphia Eagles fanbase as a rookie. Starting the season off 3-0 in dominant fashion, he showed flashes of what could have been for Wentz. Carson threw 5 TDs and 0 INTs in the first three games, including big wins over the Steelers and the Bears. He ended up going through the expected rookie struggles this season and finished with 16 TDs and 14 INTs. Eagles fans all had hope that this QB could be the QB for the future. The Eagles finished the 2016 campaign with a record of 7-9, missing the playoffs.
Moving into 2017, Carson Wentz seemed to take the next step with more talent around him. With a top 5 defense despite a struggling secondary, the Eagles also had a top-5 offense in PPG. Wentz played out of his mind in 2017, especially on 3rd downs. The Eagles seemed to find themselves on 3rd and long often, where Wentz would make incredible throws to keep the drives alive. In 13 games, the Eagles went 11-2, Wentz finished with 33 TDs and only 7 INTs. An incredible year nonetheless, his play in the regular season allowed for Foles to come in and take the Eagles to the super bowl. Wentz was a huge factor in the Eagles making it that far and putting the team in a position to compete.
In 2018, things continued to be good for Wentz. A lost season nonetheless, considering he injured his back late in the season and missed the remaining five games. This season did not have the same magic as the previous season, but Wentz played very well nonetheless. 21 TDs and 7 INTs in 11 games, he finished with a record of 5-6. Not getting an opportunity to fight for the playoffs, Foles came in relief again and finished the season 4-1, beating the Washington Football Team (Formerly the Redskins) twice, the Rams, and the Texans. This team was just a step below the team from 2017, with a middle of the pack defense and offense. Some injuries added up in which they ultimately got knocked out in the first round. Wentz played well enough to keep this team in the playoff hunt, even with some heartbreaking losses out of his control. Such as week four vs the Titans in OT. At this point in his career, no one had lost faith in Wentz as the future of the franchise. Aside from a few Nick Foles truthers out there. Wentz looked like a legit NFL QB with enough talent to be top 5 in the league at some point.
2019 continued Wentz's impressive play at the helm of the Eagles offense. The Eagles again boasted a top 15 Offense and Defense, yet fell short of those super bowl expectations again. A lot of people had written Wentz off as an injury-prone QB by this point, but he managed to play through the entire regular season healthy and upright. With perhaps the worst core of wide receivers of all-time, Wentz still prevailed, throwing for 4000 yards 27 TDs, and 7 INTs. No pass-catcher went over 1000 yards, and no wide receiver went over 500 yards. Ertz and Goedert were his mainstays throughout the season, as there were a ton of injuries. This season was Wentz's first opportunity to get some playoff playing time. However, this opportunity was short-lived, as he was knocked out of the game early, on an arguably dirty hit from Jadeveon Clowney. Wentz did not return, McCown was not enough in relief, and that is how the 2019 campaign ended for Wentz.
Four years in, Wentz had 97 passing TDs, 35 INTs, and 3 Rushing TDs. Fumbling was also an issue for Wentz, but at this point, Wentz still seemed poised to lead the Eagles for the remainder of his career. Injuries had been apparent every season for the Eagles, yet they were able to fight through and stay competitive from 2017-2019. The Eagles had made the playoffs each of the last three seasons, but in 2018 and 2019, it was no simple task. The team had to grind through the tough times and injuries to be able to get there. Nothing like 2017, where they looked nearly unstoppable. This team has been trending backward for three years. Going from Super Bowl champs to a second-round exit, to a first-round exit. The core of this team has been aging for the past few seasons. There have been some important pieces that have left. Not much talent has been added in the draft. Should we have seen 2020 coming? Were the Eagles destined for a bad season?
What happened in 2020?
So what really happened in 2020? Did Carson Wentz regress? Were the past 4 years all a fluke for the Eagles? Did Wentz lose his talent overnight? Let's break it down.
In 2020 thus far, the Eagles have struggled mightily. The fans do not know how to handle it. 2020 has been an insane year. Not much of a training camp, no preseason, and COVID has affected every team in the league. Carson Wentz has been an interception-machine and overly inaccurate this season. He has thrown 15 INTs in only 12 games played. His throws have been inaccurate 21.9% of the time, up 4 % from the 2019 season. These issues have shown up in pretty much every game this season. As early as week 1, against Washington, he threw a couple of picks in a game where the Eagles had the lead in the first half and let the game get away from them. There is no denying at this point that Wentz has not been fully himself this season, but is it truly his fault? I believe it is, but only partially. There are times where Wentz has been to blame this season, missing reads of open receivers and missing throws that we've seen him make time and time again. His flaws have been heavily magnified this season due to the overall Eagles struggles.
Supporting Cast and Coaching
Aside from Wentz, there are a lot of other factors that lead up to this point for the Eagles. From the top, the playcalling has seemed atrocious this season. The Eagles are currently 28th in rushing attempts, yet they are also 14th in rushing yards? The rushing game has been nothing short of impressive this season. When the Eagles run the ball, good things have happened. Yet, the running game seems to be abandoned in the first half every single week. The Eagles have been competitive in the majority of their games and should have been able to run the ball more. There are teams without decent running backs ahead of the Eagles in rushing attempts. Yet, for some reason, coach Pederson refuses to run the ball. The Eagles offense also has been pretty similar for the past few seasons. Opposing defenses are beginning to figure out Doug's tendencies and reading plays before they even happen. Doug used to be one of the run-heaviest offense's in football with carousels at running back, but with a stud, in Miles Sanders, they're at the bottom of the league? I understand that the team is losing a lot of these games, so running the ball often gets left behind, but why? Why can't the Eagles come out in the second half only down seven points and run the ball to move the chains? They have one of the most effective backs in the league, with Sanders averaging 5.3 ypc.
Miles Sanders has struggled a bit himself, but more in the passing game. Miles Sanders had 50 catches last season on 63 targets, but only 19 on 39 targets this season. Where is the disconnect? A few more inaccurate throws from Wentz and seven drops from Sanders alone. That is correct, seven drops. Most of them being drive-killing drops where the team ends up punting. Carson seems to have lost some faith in his check down when it is Sanders out there. In three games the Eagles have won this season, two of them have been without Sanders. I think this is more of a coincidence, but he needs to step it up in the passing game. I'm no genius or football guru, but I think feeding Miles Sanders the ball on first and second down and bringing Boston Scott out for third down, who has one drop in his career and more catches than Sanders this season, would be a good start.
Let's get into this offensive line. At full strength, the Eagles offensive line is a top-5 unit. Kelce continues to play at an elite level even at his age, Lane Johnson is a beast when healthy, Brandon Brooks is arguably a top 5 guard in football, Seumalo is a pretty solid guard, and Dillard still has yet to get a full shot at LT. At the start of this season, the line was looking pretty solid again. Injuries reared their ugly head again, with all of the offensive line missing games, aside from Kelce. The OL has been a revolving door with injuries, with ten different units playing in games this season. Including Jamon Brown, if you don't know who that is, look up his lowlights against the Ravens, abysmal. Either way, this line has been bad, real bad. Their poor play has affected Carson Wentz tremendously. Carson Wentz was pressured 157 times total in 2019 behind a somewhat banged-up line in 16 games. In 11.5 games this season, he has already been pressured 141 times. Being pressured on more than a quarter of his dropbacks. He's also been sacked 50 times and hit 51 times. 101 hits and sacks are 11 more total than all of 2019. The pressure has been relentless. This poor play is not only the line's fault. Wentz has always held on to the ball a bit too long. It has been magnified this season with the poor o-line and another factor, the receiving core.
Wentz's #1 WR heading into this season was his tight end, Zach Ertz. Ertz got hurt after six weeks and missed a handful of games. He is just now getting back up to speed after the season is pretty much over. His second-best weapon, arguably Dallas Goedert, got injured after three weeks and missed all of October. His actual wide receiver's Alshon, Reagor, and Djax have played 15 games combined. Seven for Reagor, four for Alshon, and four for Djax. Wentz had to rely on practice squad WRs again. Luckily, Fulgham emerged as a pretty solid WR for a handful of weeks before pretty much disappearing the past few weeks. The Eagles arguably have the worst WR core in the league, so is this by design? Doug Pederson as an offensive coordinator has never been great at scheming open WRs. He was the OC for the Chiefs when they went an entire season without a WR scoring a TD. The Eagles have had 1, 1000-yd Receiver in Wentz's entire career. Zach Ertz in 2018. That is it. The talent around Wentz has been average at best on the outside. The Eagles signed Alshon towards the end of his prime and a handful of other pass catchers at the end of their careers, such as DJax, Torrey Smith, and this season Marquise Goodwin, who opted out. They've missed on the draft multiple times on guys like Tyreek Hill, DK Metcalf, and this year Justin Jefferson.
Overall, Wentz thrives with a good o-line, despite the level of talent around him. Wentz has the talent to be an MVP level QB because we've seen it. In 2017, he tore the league to shreds, in 2018, he played well through an injured back, and in 2019, he played the best he could with what is around him. With the lack of talent, good playcalling, Wentz's struggles, and the sheer amount of injuries, The Eagles were destined to fail in 2020, with Wentz leading the charge or not. Wentz may not be an elite level talent like Mahomes or Russell Wilson, but we have even seen Russell Wilson fall victim to the same situations the past couple of weeks and at times over the past few seasons. Wilson was making poor decisions due to an injured offensive line and a poor defense. At least he has consistently had some weapons on the outside throughout his career.
Nick Foles - Jalen Hurts
Wentz has had a strong mental fortitude throughout his career in Philadelphia. Time and time again, the city is trying to poke holes in him. Whether it be the media, the fans, or even his teammates (I'm looking at you, Alshon Jeffery), they have all tried to say that Wentz is not fit to be the starter for some reason. There are still a handful of people out there saying Nick Foles should have been the QB over Wentz. Despite Foles never being able to play through a 16-game season in his entire career, whether it be injury-related or performance-related. Wentz was and still is the better talent of the two. Any time he has struggled, people have said, "Should have kept Foles" or "Foles is better." What Foles did for the city of Philadelphia can never be forgotten, but Foles is not a franchise QB. Up until this season, we have seen Wentz show the capability of being so.
Then, once Foles finally leaves town, the Eagles go out and draft a QB in the second round. Not the 4th round, or 5th round, or later. No, with a second-round pick, they selected a QB after they paid Wentz a ton of money to be the starter here for a long time. So why do this? I understand somewhat that the injury concern was there, so it would be nice to have a capable backup. Why not sign one? Why draft someone who can create a QB controversy and cause Wentz to be looking over his shoulder, thinking he could lose his job? Why draft someone like Hurts that the fanbase can say give the rookie a shot a few weeks into the season? There were a lot of needs for the Eagles in the second round, so the last thing I expected was a QB. In the end, they did it, and it led to Wentz getting benched this past week. Would he have been benched for Sudfeld, McCown, or another backup at this point? Possibly, but probably not. Hurts could be the answer for the future, but now he gets to be put in this terrible situation that is the Eagles' offense. We'll see what he can do this week against one of the league's top defenses.
What does the future look like for Wentz and the Eagles?
I think if you take anything away from this, I want you to understand that there is no right decision at this time. Carson Wentz's struggles have been amplified this season because of the poor record. The poor wide receiver core and banged up o-line both have contributed to Wentz having to hold the ball longer. Wentz also has to try and make plays happen after the offense continues to get stopped. The combination of these things has led to more mistakes from Carson and more scrutiny from the media and fans. However, I want you to know that in most ways, Wentz has been set up to fail. There have been a ton of free agent talented WRs that the Eagles have let walk by and continue to bandage the wide-receiver core. The core pieces from 2017 are all four years older, and a lot of that team is long gone. The heart of that defense left with Malcolm Jenkins, who expressed his discontent recently for the management of the team. Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, The elite o-line, and more all continue to age. Kelce will be retiring soon, and Peters should have retired a couple of seasons ago. The Eagles have been bandaging this team since the Super Bowl season and continue to try and hold it together with string. Don't get me wrong, because there have been a few solid moves here and there. Getting Slay this offseason was huge but letting Golden Tate walk? Because they liked Agholor in the slot? A lot of the decisions make no sense. There have been a ton of misses from this front office and coaching staff, and there is no right answer right now.
The only thing that is clear to me at this point is Carson Wentz still is a talented QB. He will not have an issue finding work and teams that will be interested in trading for him. We see it every game still with flashes of greatness. His mental fortitude seems to have been tested the most this season, and I would not be shocked if the Eagles move on from him if Hurts plays well. He has made his fair share of mistakes. I understand the benching of Carson Wentz. For Doug, he sees Carson struggling and has a talented second-round QB sitting on the bench with a different play style. With nothing left to lose this season, Hurts may be the right move for the Eagles at this point. Let's say Hurts goes 1-3 in the next four games and throws 8 TDs, 4 INTs, and looks good, not great. What decision do the Eagles make then? Is he the new starter? What if he comes out completely flat and throws three picks? Do you put Carson back in the lineup? Overall, this is a bad situation that should have been played out by Carson. I hope for the best for Hurts this season, but it is going to be tough to carry this team on his young shoulders.
If this article seems a bit all over the place, it is because I am still not 100% sure of what to make of this situation. I am still shocked that the Eagles are in this situation. Bear with me as I bounce all over the place and if you made it this far in the article, thanks!