From Franchise Player to Well-Traveled Gamble: The Fall of Carson Wentz
Perhaps no player has fallen from perceived franchise player to journeyman as quickly as Carson Wentz.
The former headliner in Philadelphia was traded back to the NFC East this week after a one-year failed stint in Indianapolis under the one man who was supposed to be able to return Wentz to the former glory of his MVP-level play with the Eagles.
When the trade of Wentz to the Washington Commanders becomes official on March 16, Frank Reich and the Colts will have given up on the embattled quarterback before the Eagles even get to use the first-round pick Indianapolis acquired to get him last year.
"I stuck my neck out for him, so last year I was a big part of that decision to get him here," Reich admitted at the scouting combine before GM Chris Ballard dumped Wentz and his salary on the Commanders for a swap of second-round picks this year, a 2022 seventh-round selection, and a conditional 2023 third-round pick that could turn into a second if Wentz plays significant snaps this upcoming season.
Always the diplomat, Reich had essentially admitted that Wentz was on his way out after alienating Colts owner Jim Irsay,
"I believe he’s gonna continue to have a lot of success at quarterback. That might be here. It might not be here," Reich admitted. "... But I still believe in the person, and I still believe in the player, right? I mean, we’re all in progress. I’m in progress. He’s in progress. Every one of our players is in progress.
"You just don’t want to get into that trap of taking a snapshot of any one week or one year. It’s a bigger story than that, right? So the storyline is much bigger than one season. We’ve always had that perspective, and we’ll continue to.”
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Ultimately Wentz tried to rescue things in Indy by getting a meeting with Irsay, who was turned off by Wentz's stubbornness when it came to his vaccination status in the world of COVID-19, which, in theory at least, won't be an issue moving forward.
Irsay's objections weren't political or even meritocracy-based, according to an NFL source, but more stemming from the disappointment of how Wentz handled his second chance from a leadership standpoint after the messy divorce in Philadelphia where Wentz always had a direct line to Jeffrey Lurie.
In fact, Wentz's sentiment that he could go over the heads of Reich and Ballard to fix any schisms was a callback to the way he was treated with the Eagles after the organization gave up a king's ransom to get him as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Not that the Colts were happy with the way Wentz played but that could have been overcome.
Statistically at least, it was somewhat of a bounce back from the depths of Wentz's disastrous final campaign in Philadelphia, and if the QB had been perceived as the leader the Colts were expecting, Wentz likely would have gotten a second season considering the landscape and the uninspiring depth chart behind him with the Colts (Sam Ehlinger and James Morgan).
The Athletic's Zak Keefer described the disconnect as almost a carbon-copy as the knocks on Wentz in Philly.
"Some grew frustrated at what they deemed a lack of leadership, a resistance to hard coaching and a reckless style of play,” Keefer wrote.
Ironically, Reich would show the most frustration among the Eagles' original QB incubator installed to help develop Wentz in Philadelphia, which included former head coach Doug Pederson and hard-nosed QB coach John DeFilippo.
Reich would often admit to Wentz's stubbornness when it came to game-planning and his style of play, which often left Wentz susceptible to the injuries that have also played a major part in his decline as a player.
As for the position coaches who worked with Wentz on a daily basis, DeFilippo and his assistant, Press Taylor, set up a good cop/bad cop scenario with Wentz. DeFilippo, a stern taskmaster when it came to fundamentals was the natural bad cop.
In hindsight, the beginning of the end from a performance standpoint in Philadelphia for Wentz was DeFilippo leaving to become the offensive coordinator in Minnesota after the Super Bowl LII victory.
Taylor was already the good cop and far too easy on Wentz, a player who needed to constantly focus on his mechanics or they would go awry.
Meanwhile, the off-the-field stuff was always an issue.
By nature of the position, QBs need to be leaders and Wentz was more of an introvert, often keeping to himself and failing to reach out to others in the locker room. There are cliques in every locker room and QBs need to make an effort to break through to keep everyone on the same page.
Wentz always seemed content to encircle himself with those he had the most in common with. His faith was often perceived to be a hurdle to those who didn't share the same belief system and felt frozen out by the most important person on the team.
The final piece to the toxic puzzle was the constant validation Wentz needed and craved, from the jealously of Nick Foles' historic playoff run to the drafting of Jalen Hurts, Wentz always took the baton in a negative direction.
It was obvious that Wentz's play got the Eagles to the closer that Foles proved to be and some envy was to be expected. That manifested itself, however, into a shoving match between an injured running back and Wentz in the lead up to Super Bowl LII, one in which the bodyguard himself, Jason Peters, has to restore order.
Wentz could have learned a valuable lesson from Peters, who also missed the Super Bowl with a torn ACL, by 2018 when an out-state reporter showed up in training camp and asked if the big man was motivated by getting his own Super Bowl ring.
The always intimidating Peters glared and simply said "already got one."
Although Peters wasn't able to be on the field in Minneapolis when Brandon Graham stripped Tom Brady, he was secure enough to realize how much he meant to the only Eagles' Super Bowl winner.
Wentz simply never felt that way.
Similarly when the Eagles drafted Hurts as a cost-effective backup in 2020 because Wentz had been unable to finish three consecutive seasons due to injury the veteran refused to take that at face value despite $128 million reasons to do so.
That's how you do from Philly to Indy and the Beltway in less than 12 months.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
