[ad_1]
Getty Images
The Philadelphia Eagles, officially eliminated from the playoffs, will play their last game tonight against Washington. Immediately after the game, planning for 2021 will begin.
As for the quarterback position, the Eagles will press pause before committing to a full and comprehensive assessment. In general, the Eagles believe that Carson Wentz, now a replacement, can be fixed and that he can resume his brilliant career.
The first question is whether Wentz will be reinstalled as a starter for 2021 or whether Wentz and 2020 second-round pick Jalen Hurts will compete for the job. In theory, the Eagles could also decide to make Hurts the starter with no competition between him and Wentz. That outcome seems the least likely at this point, mainly because the Eagles continue to believe in Wentz.
Considering the investment made to trade for Wentz in 2016, the decision to keep him above Super Bowl LIII MVP Nick Foles, and the investment in the form of a contract with an annual value of $ 32 million the Eagles can’t and won’t. lose faith in Wentz based on a bad season – especially as the season featured a rash of offensive line injuries and, as of tonight’s game, 14 different combinations of players in the starting five spots .
While there is no real comparison with Wentz, who performed well enough in his first three years to earn an extension in market value, had another solid year and then fell sharply, he did not. It’s not entirely unprecedented for franchise-level quarterbacks to experience a declining season early on. in their career. In 2006, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had 18 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions, one season after winning a Super Bowl. In 2001, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning slipped 33 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions to 26 and 23, as his team went from 10-6 to 6-10.
So why was Wentz benched for Hurts? The fact that the Eagles belong to a division that struggled across the board in 2020 has kept the team looking for a playoff spot longer than it should have. With a late-season opener to win the NFC East crown, coach Doug Pederson decided to try and give the team a spark by returning to Hurts.
But Hurts was not drafted to replace Wentz. The Eagles realize, more than any other team, that they need two viable quarterbacks at all times. From 2017 to 2019, the Eagles had six playoff games and Wentz took a total of nine shots in those games, all of which took place in the 2019 playoff round.
The Eagles, like many teams, highly value the reserve quarterback position, seeing it as a top 15 spot on the roster. This message, however, may not have been fully communicated to Wentz, given last month’s report from Jay Glazer that Hurts’ arrival damaged Wentz’s confidence.
Whatever the Eagles choose to do, they can easily carry the Wentz and Hurts contracts below the salary cap, given that Hurts has a split rookie contract for three more seasons. While things will get more than a little awkward if Hurts starts next year with a salary of $ 883,000 while Wentz languishes on the bench with a cap of $ 34.6 million, the total cap and investment in Cash in the quarterback position won’t ruin things. whack for the Eagles.
Nor have the Eagles been shaken by the strategic leak that Wentz won’t want to stay if he’s not the starter. An NFL quarterback who has been a starter is expected to remain the starter.
A trade remains possible, depending on decisions made by the Eagles after evaluating the full quarterback position. Tying the right value or finding it from another team won’t be easy, and the Eagles have proven they won’t just give quarterbacks. Indeed, Wentz’s career began after the Eagles planned to start the 2016 season with Sam Bradford under center until Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a serious knee injury in late August and the Vikings spat out a first and fourth round pick to get Bradford and install. Wentz as a starter.
Five years later, Wentz could be reinstalled as a starter. Or he might have to compete for it. Or he can land on the bench. The end result will not be known for some time; what is known is that the Eagles currently believe that Wentz’s drop in performance will ultimately prove to be a thing in the short term.
[ad_2]
Source link