Bucky

Carson Wentz’s career with the Eagles has certainly been up and down. He started off red-hot as a rookie, then he and the Eagles cooled down and finished the season more modestly. Next year, he has his best season. The Eagles are Super Bowl contenders and he could have been the league MVP. Then, he tears his ACL. The team then wins the Super Bowl and builds a statue of Nick Foles.

The next two years consisted of Carson Wentz trying to dig his team out of slow starts.

The first time around, Carson Wentz fractures his back and is sidelined for the final five games. Once again, Nick Foles comes in and leads the Eagles to the playoffs and helped the team upset the Bears in the Wild Card. The second time around, Wentz was able to finish the season and successfully carried his team to the playoffs. Finally! Carson Wentz makes his playoff debut…then gets a concussion in the first quarter. Now the front office of the Eagles has to watch 40 year-old Josh McCown lead their team in a win or go home situation.

So, what do the Eagles do in the off-season? Draft Jalen Hurts in the second round, making it painfully obvious that they do not trust Wentz to get through an entire NFL season. And now, after struggling pretty much all season, Wentz has finally been benched for Jalen Hurts.

Could be this be the end of the Carson Wentz era in Philadelphia? I hope so. Quite frankly, it would be best for both sides if the Eagles were to trade Wentz in the off-season. Here’s why

How Did We Get Here?

Lowered Salary Cap

Even if the salary cap was where it was supposed to originally be the Eagles would still be in trouble. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the leagues revenue, the Eagles cap situation has gone from bad to worse. The team can try to cut their losses in other areas, but they are $63 million in the hole, according to Spotrac. In order to get out of the hole and still be able to fill a 53 man roster they will have to make some tough decisions with some of their veteran players. Carson Wentz is one of those guys.

If they want to keep Wentz and his massive salary they will really have to gut the roster in order to do that. Considering how thin the roster already is, trading Wentz makes more sense.

Terrible Coaching

The worst kept secret in the NFL nowadays is that Doug Pederson a terrible coach. I have known this for a while. Mostly because in the Eagles-Dolphins matchup last year he continued to put his corners on an island against DeVante Parker even though Parker was “Mossing” them the entire game. He also refused to run the ball when they had the lead in the second half. But I digress.

Doug Pederson has shown to be unwillingly to do anything different in regards to the play calling. The play calling he continues to use is deep drops for Wentz, with long progressing pass plays. This is in spite of the Eagles receivers being bad and the offensive line even worse.

There is also the added wrinkle where it seems the players who get paid the most are the ones who play, rather than the best players playing.

This terrible coaching has also lead to a regression for Wentz as far as his ability to make smart decisions and being able to read a defense post-snap. Wentz has never really been known as turnover-prone, but now he is.

Nevertheless, it seems like no matter what Wentz will have a new head coach and a new play caller. Reports suggest Pederson is either going to get fired or he’s going to step down.

Terrible Management

Too Loyal?

Then there is Howie Roseman. There really isn’t enough time to talk about how poorly constructed this roster is, but I will go over the SparkNotes. First, there is the commitment to older players who helped win the Super Bowl in 2017. Guys like Zach Ertz, Alshon Jeffery, Rodney McCloud, Jalen Mills, and Jason Peters. Then throw in DeSean Jackson because he’s an Eagle at heart. All of these guys have been past their prime for some time now. Yet, the Eagles are still hellbent that the team is better with those guys.

Draft Whiffs

Next, their draft decisions. Roseman isn’t exactly the worst at drafting. However, he is not particularly good either. He has drafted some okay starters but hasn’t drafted that big time player or a guy that was slept on by the rest of the league. The one exception has been Miles Sanders and Pederson refuses to use him.

Helping or Hurting?

Finally, the lack of initiative to actually help Wentz. As mentioned they have been hellbent on keeping a lot of these older players. Here are the guys that are “helping” Wentz.

  • Zach Ertz, 30: 5 games missed + $12.48 million cap hit
  • DeSean Jackson, 34: 8 games missed + $8.61 million cap hit
  • Alshon Jeffery, 30: 8 games missed + $15.40 million cap hit
  • Jason Peters, 38: 4 games missed + $4.63 million cap hit
  • Jason Kelce, 33: 0 games missed + $7.41 million cap hit
  • Lane Johnson, 30: 5 games missed + $10.30 million cap hit
  • Brandon Brooks, 31: 12 games missed +$7.79 million cap hit

To summarize what you see here, you have seven offensive players who are seen as starters when healthy. All seven are above the age of 30, with the average being 32.3 years old. Six out of the seven players have missed at least four games and a combined 42 games missed. This is an average of six games missed per player. All those players have a combined cap hit of $66.62 million.

Where Should He Go?

Best Case Scenario

The easiest answer is the Indianapolis Colts. They have a great offensive line to protect Wentz. Their defense is solid. Best of all, they have Frank Reich, who seems more like the mastermind behind the Eagles Super Bowl with each passing day.

Other Options

The only teams where it would make sense would be the Washington Football Team and the New England Patriots. Both have the cap to take on Wentz contract. However, for Washington, their offensive line isn’t that good, so having Wentz’s history of injuries might be too risky. For New England, they have a ton of impending free agents who bring a lot of value to the team. If they want to go with Wentz they will be sacrificing a lot of their depth across the board. Additionally, their offensive weapons aren’t that great either.

Why It Makes Sense For The Colts

According to Spotrac, the Colts have $76.8 million in cap space for the 2021 off-season. They can take on the Wentz contract and still have plenty leftover to field the rest of their team. As mentioned, they already have one of the best offensive lines in football and their defense is solid. All they really need is to get a No.1 WR for Wentz to throw to. And again, Reich has that history with Wentz, where at this point I would only give him credit for Wentz development into the quarterback he once was. If there is anyone I think can get Wentz to be that 2017 MVP candidate, it’s Reich.