With Carson Wentz set to start for the Vikings against the Eagles on Sunday, my defenses are on red (really orange) alert. The quarterback formerly known as Ginger Jesus makes his 4th straight start for Minnesota and has a respectable 2-1 record. Those two wins were against the horrible Browns and Bengals (what’s the opposite of Killer Bs?), but still. On a talented Vikings team, he has been competent. That’s saying something. In his last few stops, competence has not been one of his virtues. If we lose on Sunday, it would be completely devastating to my mental health. Yes, we lost to Sean Payton and the Broncos thanks to an inept offense and some of the most lopsided officiating you’ve ever seen. And yes, we just lost to a Giants team that was starting a rookie who can’t throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field. But losing to Wentz, after how he went out? I can’t. After 3 Super Bowl appearances, 2 wins, and an absolutly lovely franchise QB, I still hate him.
There was a time that we all loved and believed in Carson Wentz. It’s weird to think that he was our savior. We traded up to draft him in 2016. Upon getting to training camp, he was so pro ready that we traded starter Sam Bradford to the Vikings for a 1st round pick (lol) in order to start him immediately. In year 2, he looked like the MVP of the league, and we were all the Lebron James meme thinking “I can’t believe this is my life!” How lucky can we get? More than we know as it turned out, in the least expected way possible (unless you are my friend AJ who predicted what happened next).
On December 10, 2017, Wentz was injured and lost for the season. Nick Foles would come in and the rest is history. He played two of the greatest games ever, won the Super Bowl, became a hero, and Carson Wentz was ruined forever. Imagine what that must have felt like? Had the team won a championship thanks to incredible defense and simply competence from Foles, maybe Wentz never loses his confidence. Instead, it was literally all Foles to the point that the city made a goddamn statue for him. Wentz was never the same.
That offseason, there was legitimate discussion about trading either Wentz or Foles. Despite the injury, there probably wasn’t a team in the league outside of New England that wouldn’t have given 2 first round picks for him. He was a 25-year-old MVP candidate on a rookie scale contract for 2 more years. Someone like that is NEVER available. So, do you trade the phenom or the hero?1 They did neither and it was the wrong move.
Wentz was never comfortable after that. He held the ball too long, took too many sacks, and threw the ball into windows he had no business attempting. Foles was always looming over his shoulder ready to lead a locker room that clearly preferred his BDN energy over Wentz. Lightning almost struck twice when it looked like Foles was about to save the 2018 season like he did 2017 when an injured Wentz went down again. The Eagles finally realized they needed to commit, and they did. In June 2019, Wentz signed a $128m extension and let Foles go. The team was unquestionably his at that point. They needed a backup though.
Unfortunately for Wentz, the Eagles drafted a man with unwavering confidence in himself in the 2nd round. The idea was to draft a cheap, high-end backup for the oft-injured Wentz and to hopefully flip him for first round picks in the future. That’s the QB factory in action. You don’t just get leadership handed to you though. After an older team naturally gravitated to the older Foles, now the younger Jalen Hurts was ready to take control of the locker room. He didn’t complain, he didn’t worry, he just went about his business knowing that the team would be his soon enough. Despite the huge contract, Wentz couldn’t take it. He regressed badly.
Some will still defend Wentz by saying they never got him any receivers. Those people aren’t wrong. Hurts has had DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown for most of his time in Philly, while Wentz was throwing to Jalen Reagor, Travis Fulgham, and JJ Arcega-Whiteside (plus Zack Ertz). That doesn’t explain the disastrous decision making though. In his final season, Wentz led the league in sacks and INTs despite only playing 12 games. It was a total disaster (in his defense, Lane Johnson missed most of that year, an evergreen recipe for Eagles failure).
Wentz was benched and shipped out to the Colts for draft capital. In a series of moves, this led to Smith, Brown, and even Jalen Carter. Based on those guys and 2 Super Bowl wins, you would think I’d be thankful for the Carson Wentz experience because it could not have worked out better all around. I’m not though. I look at him as a stubborn, entitled, high draft pick who allowed himself to fail despite countless time and resources invested in his success. He just refused to ever learn from his mistakes.
That huge contract should have pacified him as the best and only type of dedication a team can give. Why should he be looking over his shoulder at a 2nd round pick? Maybe it’s because it wasn’t the first time? Was he that damaged from the Foles Super Bowl heroics that he could never trust again? It makes sense. Instead of believing in himself, he was too worried about Jalen Hurts and it cost him his job.
I wrote this to help me get over Wentz. I’m clearly still mad at him and terrified about losing on Sunday. Why? Literally everything about him has led to a great outcome for us. It’s time to let go…something Carson Wentz could never do.
- That’s an interesting What If. Now I have to write about it. ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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