What’s wrong with Carson Wentz? Hopkins’ trade looms and more
As Carson Wentz has regressed in his fifth NFL season, the Eagles face a looming crisis, while the DeAndre Hopkins trade just might have transformed the NFL.
How the mighty have fallen.
The career of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz can clearly be defined by two periods; before Dec. 11, 2017, and after.
“If you put Carson in San Francisco, he’s an All-Pro right now,” former NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels tells FanSided.
The reality is, in Philadelphia, Wentz looks like anything but.
Wentz looks like a shell of the quarterback he once was.
It’s easy to forget now, but before shredding his ACL while diving for the goal line at the Los Angeles Coliseum against the Rams in ’17, Wentz was on the fast track to winning the MVP award in his second NFL season.
Wentz passed for 3,296 yards with 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 13 games prior to getting hurt, while positioning the Eagles to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Nick Foles finished the job Wentz started, delivering the franchise’s first Super Bowl win two months later.
Fast forward to Nov. 2020, and 2017 is looking more like the outlier than the opening of a lengthy Super Bowl window.
However, while Wentz’s numbers this season — career low 58.3 completion percentage with a career-high and league-leading 12 interceptions — look like a quarterback who has dramatically regressed in his fifth season, there seems much blame to go around for the Eagles’ precipitous decline.
Specifically, head coach Doug Pederson bears plenty of responsibility for how Wentz’s career and the Eagles’ fortunes have devolved.
“Some coaches have an ability to make the quarterback’s job easier,” Rosenfels said. “Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Andy Reid … they’re the type of coaches where quarterbacks almost always play well. That’s hard to define, but the simplest way to explain it is some coaches and schemes are more quarterback-friendly than others.”
Since the green and silver confetti swirled around Pederson, Foles, and general manager Howie Roseman, the Eagles have taken a step back down the ladder from the podium each season.
In 2018, the Eagles lost Wentz to a back injury in Week 11, before losing in the divisional round to the New Orleans Saints. Last year, the Eagles were upset at home by the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Wild Card round, and seem primed to fall further back to the pack in 2020.
Through 10 weeks, the Eagles find themselves clinging to a tenuous lead in the NFC East standings at 3-5-1. A backbreaking loss to the New York Giants on Sunday just might be rock-bottom for the Wentz-era Eagles.
“The Eagles are going through the same issues I see with Chicago,” Rosenfels says. “Andy Reid knockoff coaches rarely work, because they don’t have the Andy Reid magic or the superb offensive line coaching.”
Since hobbling off the field and into the L.A. Coliseum tunnel, Wentz has tossed 60 touchdowns, 26 interceptions, and the Eagles are 17-18-1 in games he’s started.
“Their reality is the team around Carson isn’t nearly as good as it used to be,” a current NFL scout tells FanSided. “Their offensive line has been decimated by injuries, their wide receiving corps is banged up, and the running game just isn’t there from week to week. He’s definitely part of the issue and his decisio- making is worse than ever, but all that goes hand-in-hand.”
Former NFL Executive of The Year Jeff Diamond built a team that made the Super Bowl in 1999 and agrees that Wentz is a symptom of what’s ailing the Eagles rather than the root cause of the organization’s woes.
“Right now, I still think Carson’s a talented guy,” Diamond tells FanSided. “But, he’s not playing with the confidence that he did before. They just don’t have the supporting cast that Carson needs to be successful. It’s gone downhill awfully quick for them.”
Unfortunately for the Eagles, whether Wentz ever returns to his MVP form might be the least of the organization’s long-term worries.
In April, the Eagles invested a second-round pick in Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts, perhaps with at least one eye on the possibility that Wentz might follow in Andrew Luck’s footsteps to an early retirement after sustaining a torn ACL, fractured vertebra, and Grade 1 concussion in the last 35 months.
Whether the Eagles wind up needing to cash that policy remains to be seen, but whoever is throwing the football in 2021 in Philadelphia could have a dramatically different supporting cast around him than Wentz does now.
The Eagles are currently projected to be $64.5 million over the cap in 2021.
“F*** if I know how to fix it,” a league source tells FanSided of the Eagles’ cap issues.
Wentz carries a team-high $34.6 million cap number, with defensive lineman Fletcher Cox, defensive ends Derek Barnett and Brandon Graham, wide receivers Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson, tight end Zach Ertz, along with offensive linemen Lane Johnson and Brandon Brooks — in other words much of the Super Bowl winning core accounting for upwards of $115.7 million in cap space.
“You’re going to see a lot of teams in cap hell,” a current NFL agent tells FanSided. “I think you’re going to see a ton of teams — including the Eagles — restructuring a ton of contracts. Howie’s always been kind of a wizard at manipulating the cap, but they’re going to need to move a ton of salary money into bonuses and in exchange for some guaranteed money.”
There’s a chance the Eagles recapture the magic they trapped in a bottle back in 2017 and Wentz returns to form over a final six-game sprint to a possible playoff berth.
But, what’s more likely is a long and difficult offseason filled with daunting questions and an uncertain future facing Roseman, Pederson, and the Eagles.
“They may need to pick and choose who stays part of that core,” a former NFL GM tells FanSided. “Seriously, they really need to start drafting well, like, yesterday. The quarterback isn’t going anywhere because he carries too much dead money.
“It almost feels like it’s time for a full rebuild for the Eagles, which would be the smart thing to do, in my opinion.”
What seemed almost unimaginable on that hazy Los Angeles evening back in Dec. 2017, is the reality of the inflection point the Eagles now find themselves in.
“They’re not going to get rid of Carson,” Diamond said. “So, they have to improve the supporting cast around him, and they’ve been able to do that in the past and regenerate their team.”
Hail Murray made possible by trade that changed the NFL
The catch that everyone’s talking about this week, and will remember for years to come, would never have happened without one of the most lopsided trades in NFL history. A deal that will come to define the trajectory of two franchises.
Long before Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray rolled to his left while being chased by a pair of Buffalo Bills defenders before hurling a bullet 60 yards downfield to DeAndre Hopkins, Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim took a call that made it all possible.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Keim’s phone rang on March 21.
What might Keim’s reaction have been when former Houston Texans general manager and head coach Bill O’Brien offered Hopkins in exchange for aging and injury-riddled running back David Johnson and a second-round pick?
“You don’t find those kind of deals all that often that just blow up like that on a team,” Diamond said.
Did Keim laugh? He think he was being punked?
Diamond has been on the other end of those such offers before.
“More often than not there’s more of a grey area to find out over time whether it’s a better trade for one team or the other,” Diamond said. “But, this was right out of the gate, immediately a disaster for the Texans.
“It looks a lot worse in light of the Stefon Diggs trade, when the Vikings got a first-round pick and three or four other picks out of that deal and turned the first rounder into Justin Jefferson into the Offensive Rookie of The Year.”
For as disastrous as the deal turned out for the Texans, the Hopkins trade just might have the same impact on Arizona that the trade to acquire Brett Favre from the Atlanta Falcons had on the Green Bay Packers’ back in 1992.
There was, at the time, a floundering Packers franchise that hadn’t made the postseason in a decade, taking a chance on a young and dynamic player who immediately changed the culture of TitleTown.
One year later, in the first offseason of free agency, the Packers lured future Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White to the tiny town of Green Bay. The very next year, Favre’s second in Green Bay and White’s first, the Packers went on to win a Super Bowl.
The Packers made a second consecutive trip to the Super Bowl the following year. But, acquiring Favre was the move that restored the Packers to glory as Green Bay went on to make the playoffs each of the next six seasons and have only missed the postseason seven times since.
Now, trading for a Hall of Fame quarterback is a heck of a lot more impactful than acquiring a possible future Hall of Fame wide receiver — even if it is for a bag of donuts.
But, the Cardinals now have an electrifying and otherworldly talented young quarterback in Murray, paired with a speedy wide receiver in Christian Kirk. Add in Hopkins, all playing for a head coach in Kliff Kingsbury who has built a scheme around maximizing the speed and gifts of his players’ skill-sets.
With that kind of core in place, in a market that will certainly be a drawing card for free agents in coming offseasons, the Cardinals’ potential for success over the next half decade might be limitless.
Arizona has already shown it has the moxy to beat the Seattle Seahawks, and at 6-3 atop the NFC West, Hopkins’ catch doesn’t feel like a seminal moment for the Cardinals. It feels more like a proclamation to the rest of their division, and frankly the rest of the NFL, that this is a team that could be on the cusp of real success.
“The Cardinals are all the more fortunate to have been able to pull that deal off, with Bill O’Brien.” Diamond said.
What I’ll be watching Sunday
Tennessee Titans vs. Baltimore Ravens
Who knows how many teams will wind up making the ever-expanding NFL playoffs in this unprecedented COVID-19 season. But, both teams desperately need a win Sunday.
The Ravens and Titans enter Sunday as two of six 6-3 AFC teams, and are each coming off gut-check defeats.
Tennessee is coming off a Thursday night division loss to the Indianapolis Colts where Mike Vrabel’s team lethargic at home while allowing 430 yards of total offense in a 34-17 loss. The Titans haven’t looked right since coming up short in an emotionally draining home loss to the high-flying and unbeaten Steelers back in Week 7.
Meanwhile, the cracks are beginning to spread in the Ravens’ offense as Lamar Jackson’s struggles to push the ball deep downfield outside the numbers continued in the midst of a Foxboro monsoon on Sunday night.
The Patriots had been left for dead as questions about Cam Newton’s future grew louder with each interception and lackluster performance in recent weeks. But, the Patriots outclassed the Ravens in a 23-17 stunner that leaves Bill Belichick and Co. with flickering postseason hopes, and more uncertainty about the Ravens’ ceiling than ever.
This game is the rare simultaneous get-right game, and measuring stick for both teams. It also might ultimately decide one of the AFC’s wild card spots.
Quotable
"“We wanted to stand up and show how tough and physical we were. That was kind of the mentality of the whole team.”"
– New England Patriots RB Damien Harris, via Boston.com
Imagine the Patriots, of all teams, needing to forge an identity.
But, in a 2020 world where Tom Brady’s throwing to Rob Gronkowski … in Tampa Bay, here we are. Still, after punching the Baltimore Ravens in the mouth, in a monsoon, the Patriots are 4-5 and three games back in the win column of the AFC East leading Buffalo Bills.
If New England can play a physical brand of football on both sides the rest of the way, is anyone counting Bill Belichick out? Anyone?
Final thought
Allen Robinson is one of the best all around receivers in the NFL, and he’s being wasted by the Chicago Bears.
This is an organization that can’t get out of its own way — or quarterback hell — trying to figure out the most important position in pro sports, having cycled through the Jay Cutlers, Mitchell Trubiskys and latter day Nick Foleses of the world unable to maximize Robinson’s gifts the past three years.
In an era of the NFL where the rules are tilted significantly in receivers’ favor and dominated by video game offenses, Robinson has caught 63 of his 95 targets for 755 yards and three touchdowns, while averaging 12 yards per reception.
In the final year of his contract, we might finally see Robinson’s true potential at age 28 pay major dividends for a team in 2021.
Frank Reich and the Indianapolis Colts have just over $76 million in cap space next season. The Cincinnati Bengals have over $45 million, while the Miami Dolphins have approximately $37 million to spend. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Chargers have $31.4 million in cap space and arguably the game’s premier rookie passer.
How much fun would watching Robinson catch passes from Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, or Tua Tagovailoa be? How much better does Robinson make the Jets, who have $80.8 million to spend? Might the Giants, with $23.4 million in spending flexibility find a way to pair Robinson with Daniel Jones for the next five years in a division that’s there for the taking?
Wherever Robinson lands, he has the chance to be the most sought-after player on the open market and perhaps the most impactful addition to help put a playoff caliber team over the top.
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.