Wentz Watch
Piece by: Jon Price
You will not find me too often to be bearish regarding Carson Wentz, but I will be realistic in the outlook for him as a quarterback of a team that has glaring holes. We have seen Carson at his best. When he is, it is MVP caliber play for a team that wound up winning the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, the eventual deserving winner of the MVP that year. What has me forecasting a bearish year from Wentz this year is the lack of weapons as targets that went unaddressed during the draft, which is for another article on another day, and the recently reported injury to Brandon Brooks.
Wentz has shown escapability from the pocket during his years playing FCS football at NDSU and that was a skill that translated into the NFL. Yes, the ball control issues also followed (review his Gruden Grinder episode if you want to get more detail on this), but I’m willing to overlook that for the skill and potential. The ability to move in the pocket and find targets is only beneficial if you have targets that do their part on the back end and a quarterback is able to trust more than just his tight end as a target under pressure.
Turning to the main reason that I’m no longer willing to make Wentz a top 15 quarterback for this year is the fact that he just lost one of his key linemen. This is a gap that we will witness throughout the season, as long as there is a season. Free agency has passed, as has the draft. In the pandemic environment, signing a lineman that will fit the shoes of Brooks on the line simply will not happen.
Bottom line, this does not mean that we will see a shortage of pass attempts by Wentz in the 2020 season. In fact, it will look similar to last year with a high number of attempts, pressures and fumbles to go with a career low in completion percentage and yards per completion and per attempt. They will turn into a dink and dunk team without the assets to effectively move the ball this way. Miles Sanders was special when given the opportunity last year, but they will need more than that. A healthy Alshon Jeffrey never had the ability to stretch the field effectively enough to alter defensive schemes because of the lack of speed.
From the standpoint of a fantasy player and a fan, I advise you to be bullish and lower your expectations of Wentz, the player, this year. Yes, they went out and drafted a bit of a project with star potential in Jalen Hurts, but the pieces are not in place or healthy enough for this to be a pivotal year, and this was the final straw in helping me to believe that this is the case.
For the Eagles to make another competitive run, Wentz needs the assets to do so. The spending that they have done in recent years during competitive runs has done them zero favors to date and may end Wentz’s time in Philly if this trend continues and Hurts shows promise. Be wise, draft Wentz late or not at all, and be prepared to weather a 6–10 or 7–9 year. The team is not built to win.
