For every Peyton Manning, there’s a Ryan Leaf. For every Andrew Luck, there’s a Robert Griffin III. For every Donovan McNabb, there’s a Tim Couch. Even at the very top of the draft, quarterbacks are a crapshoot.
So there’s a decent chance Philadelphia Eagles No. 2 overall pick Carson Wentz will be a bust. But even if Wentz weren’t to become a bust, you could forgive him for struggling early in his NFL career. After all, he’s a raw product from the relatively obscure North Dakota State in the relatively obscure Missouri Valley Football Conference, and he has only two years as a college starter under his belt.
That’s why it was so shocking to see the Eagles name Wentz their starting quarterback for their regular-season opener against the Cleveland Browns, despite the fact solid veteran Chase Daniel remains on a roster that just lost Sam Bradford, as well as the fact Wentz took just 38 snaps and completed just 12 of 24 passes in his maiden preseason.
When I saw that the Eagles had named Wentz their Week 1 starter, this is the first thing that occurred to me:
https://twitter.com/billbarnwell/status/772106147666862080
The second thing: Are the Eagles tanking?
Of course, Philly has little incentive to tank with another team’s first-round pick. They traded their 2017 first-rounder to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for the pick they used on Wentz, and the first-rounder they got for Bradford belongs to the Minnesota Vikings. So it’s hard to imagine they’re deliberately throwing in the towel on their 2016 season, especially in the wide-open NFC East.
But that’s how little this move makes sense, at least on the surface. I know the fanbase is low on patience, but few would have held it against Philly if the front office had decided to essentially redshirt Wentz, even after the Bradford deal. And the team is still paying Daniel $7 million, so why not at least give him his first real shot at running an NFL offense?
Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota started from the get-go last year in Tampa and Tennessee, but they were big-conference products who played a combined 172 preseason snaps. Derek Carr was a Week 1 starter in Oakland in 2014, but only after posting a 108.2 passer rating on 79 preseason snaps. That same year, Blake Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater held clipboards to start the season despite taking a combined 215 preseason snaps and playing much better than Wentz did this preseason.
In fact, no rookie quarterback in the last decade has started Week 1 with less preseason work under his belt than Wentz.
This is just a baffling, overzealous strategy. One that I can’t see paying off for either Wentz or the Eagles.
