Is Carson Wentz a Franchise QB? For First time, Doubt Creeps In

Even without top-flight weapons and facing the NFL's top-ranked defense, Eagles quarterback had to find a way to win a very winnable game against the Patriots

For the very first time since Carson Wentz arrived in Philadelphia as the second overall draft pick in 2016, a teeny tiny bit of doubt leaked into my mind on Sunday that he can be a franchise quarterback.

I understand Wentz’s weapons are less than reliable and they were short-handed against the New England Patriots, just as I know that the Patriots are the NFL’s top-ranked defense for a reason.

Still, New England was ripe to be beaten thanks to a defense that kept Tom Brady, more or less, in check. The defense held him without a touchdown pass and kept the Patriots to just 17 points.

I can’t shake the feeling that a true franchise quarterback finds a way to win that game. A true franchise quarterback finds a way to make plays, to elevate the talent level of those around him, in other words, to lead.

Wentz looked the part against the Buffalo Bills, when he helped engineer a drive that sealed a win by picking up two first downs with his legs, but there was none of that on Sunday. The quarterback did run three times for 17 yards. Instead of trying to get out of the pocket at times, Wentz went down in a heap, absorbing five sacks.

“I have to get rid of the ball,” said Wentz. “They had some good coverages and stuff, but I have to get rid of the ball and be better with that.”

Maybe my doubt can be salved with the knowledge that head coach Doug Pederson’s play calling didn’t do much to help his quarterback.

Pederson didn’t roll Wentz out of the pocket to get him out of harm’s way, and there was plenty of harm after Lane Johnson left with a concussion in the second quarter. Halapoulivaati Vaitai filled in and appeared to have his share of struggles, especially when he allowed Dont’a Hightower to race right around him and hammer Wentz before the quarterback could even get his feet set.

Pederson was too slow getting the play into the huddle too many times, too, which led to the offense not getting to the line of scrimmage often times until there was 10 or fewer seconds left on the play clock, which leaves little time to dissect what a defense is showing.

“We’d all say that we’d love to get out of the huddle with 20 seconds left (on the play clock), that always would be ideal, but that’s just not the way the game goes sometimes,” said Wentz. “There are always a lot of things, a lot of moving pieces, personnel, getting lined up, all of that stuff. Without a doubt it’s something that we want to be better at, but with the ebbs and flows of the game, that tends to happen sometimes.”

It happened way too often on Sunday.

Pederson also did not try to go up tempo, the way the Patriots did on their touchdown drive that began the second half. The coach said that he didn’t do that because the offense did not generate enough momentum.

“We thought we could scheme it better getting in the huddle,” said Wentz. “That just wasn’t a huge part of our game plan.”

Still, I can’t help but think that Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers finds a way to get it done, even with the weapons Wentz has at his disposal and especially after the Eagles got the ball at their own 6-yard line with 4:07 to play and needing a touchdown and PAT to tie. Pederson said on Monday he would have elected for the tying PAT because of how well his defense was playing.

Wentz looked primed for a signature moment, and maybe the Eagles would have gone for two and the win had they got into the end zone, except he fired four straight incomplete passes once arriving at New England’s 26. His first pass at that point sailed high of Zach Ertz and it was all downhill from there.

Perhaps Nelson Agholor should have made that catch in the end zone on the final throw. It would have been an acrobatic play, but still one that really good receivers snare. Agholor hasn’t been in that really good category this season.

“Just missed a couple, just miscues,” said Went of those four incompletions. “They made some plays, too. They made a couple plays and hats off to them. They had a really good game plan, especially late there. But that’s frustrating, especially the way we were able to move the ball to get down there and we kind of were just stagnant there at the end.”

So maybe this is more on Pederson than Wentz, so maybe my doubt is misplaced, but franchise quarterbacks should be able to overcome issues with play calling and ineffective weapons in a winnable game.

Right?