When the Philadelphia Eagles take the field on Sunday there will be a quarterback on the other sideline that by default, is responsible for the seemingly endless layers of talent, winning culture, and high character that the Birds will have on full display for more than 130 of the 195 countries on this planet to see.
Two years ago as the Eagles were preparing to play the Kansas City Chiefs, Birds’ General Manager Howie Roseman finally unburdened his chest of the obvious disregard he has for his former franchise “savior” in Kansas City’s back-up quarterback Carson Wentz.
History will say that the Wentz era in Philadelphia was a complete debacle, but it certainly didn’t start out that way as Wentz, in just his second year was the favorite to take home the league MVP award, as he led the Eagles to an 11-2 record before blowing out his knee in a win over the Rams in week 13.
Best Ability is Availability
But things went downhill every year from there primarily because of Wentz’ lack of durability ergo availability. Because of Wentz’ inability to stay on the field Roseman felt the need to draft Jalen Hurts in the second round of the 2020 draft just a year after the Eagles and Wentz agreed to a four year extension worth $128 million.
“We were making sure that we had depth there.” Roseman said during Super Bowl week back in 2022. “We had played, at that time, six playoff games and Carson had played a total of 12 snaps in those games.”
It still seemed like a waste of a high pick, considering the other needs the Birds had, as well as good money spent to protect an already huge investment. The Eagles sunk a boatload of assets to draft Wentz with the number two overall pick in 2016, and Wentz had been an MVP candidate in 2017.
But then Hurts arrived, calm, confident, and capable. He’d led his teams at Alabama and Oklahoma to three College Football Playoff appearances and reached the title game twice.
Double Nickel Noggin
Wentz had a million dollar arm but a 10 cent head. He couldn’t handle being upstaged by his understudy Nick Foles in Super Bowl 52 and the specter of Hurts looming in the shadows was too much for Wentz to process and his insecurity played itself out on the field. Wentz started the first 12 games of 2020, got benched at halftime of Game 12 against the Green Bay Packers, and never played another snap for the Eagles after that. He finished with a 3-8-1 record that season and was statistically the worst quarterback in football that year.
Roseman traded Wentz to the Colts following the 2020 season despite absorbed an NFL-record $33 million salary-cap hit for the 2021 season, and not only forged ahead with a player who didn’t have Wentz’s gifted arm talent but had an unflappable mindset and a backbone made of titanium.
Wentz’ career path since has justified Howie’s decision to move on from Ginger Jesus.
The following year Wentz struggled as a leader with the Colts losing his last two games while only needing one win to qualify for the postseason, a three point home loss to the Raiders and then a 26-11 loss in the season finale to a Jacksonville team that finished the year 3-14. Colts’ owner Jim Irsay was so incensed with Wentz he traded him to the Commanders that off season. There, Wentz’ play declined even further, he got injured (shocking), returned, but was benched for the season finale. He likely won’t see a starting job in the NFL again. He did get a start this season with the Chiefs in the meaningless season finale and completed 10 of 17 passes for just 98 yards in a 38-0 loss to the Broncos.
Hurts, meanwhile, will be starting in his second Super Bowl in the last three years this coming Sunday.
“Our job is to bring in as many good players as possible,” Roseman said. “If you’re not better than a guy that we drafted, how are you going to be better than the best players in the league?”
But rebuilding a team from ashes in just two seasons takes more than just having a steady and capable quarterback at the helm.
Roseman traded Wentz to the Colts after that 4-11-1 season in 2020 for a 2021-third-round pick and a conditional 2022 second-rounder. The 2022 conditional second-round pick became a first-rounder after Wentz played over 75% of the snaps that year.
Homerun Howie
Roseman arguably pulled off his best-ever deal when trading Wentz because he brilliantly parlayed the draft capital he received from Indy into a series of moves that have set the Eagles up to be a Super Bowl contending roster for the foreseeable future with an infrastructure built for sustained success.
Being hyper aggressive and never known to take a pitch, Roseman turned what he received from the Colts in the Wentz trade into this:
The Eagles received: DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, Kyron Johnson, Jalen Carter, Cooper DeJean, Jalyx Hunt, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, a 2025 fourth and fifth-round pick.
The Colts received: Carson Wentz, Matt Pryor, Alec Pierce, Jelani Woods, Bernhard Raimann, Andrew Ogletree
The Saints, who were also involved in the trade received: Chris Olave, Trevor Penning and Jordan Jackson.
The Eagles won the deal going away, with Brown, Smith, and Carter being the centerpieces and Dejean playing lights out as a rookie corner. The Colts moved on from Wentz after a year, banking on four draft picks from the 2022 draft to salvage that deal.
The Saints gave up a lot of assets for three draft picks, ultimately giving up eight picks for two first-round picks and a sixth in 2022. Olave is a star, but Penning has been a disappointment.
Roseman deserves a lot of credit for turning an apparent disaster into the most talented team in the NFL, setting the Eagles up to win with his cunning, guile and relentlessness in his pursuit of the ultimate goal, creating a core juggernaut of endless talent in Philadelphia that should set the Eagles up for Super Bowl contention for many years to come.
