On Thursday, the Philadelphia Eagles traded quarterback Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts for a 2021 third-round pick and a 2022 second-round pick. The second-round pick can become a first-round pick if Wentz plays 75% of snaps or 70% and the Colts make the playoffs.
Wentz finishes his Eagles career 35-32-1 with 62.7% pass completions, going 1,562 of 2,492 for 16,811 yards, 113 touchdowns, and 50 interceptions.
The deal does not become official until the new league year begins on March 17th. With Wentz now heading to the Colts, Jalen Hurts is now the new leader of the team. Hurts had already taken it upon himself to be the leader of the team. John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that Hurts and several teammates will be in Texas to train for next season.
This is great news if you are an Eagles fan. For Hurts and several teammates to get together and train for next season shows that they are willing to put in the work to prepare for next season. Heck, Tom Brady, who just won the Super Bowl, is already back training for next season.
As for the Eagles, many writers believe that the Eagles will take a quarterback with the number six pick. I don’t think they should do that, and here’s why. They have other needs that should be addressed. The quarterback position is not the Eagles biggest concern. They have a leader in Jalen Hurts, and the team needs to build around him is something they don’t do well.
With a depleted offensive line with some weapons, a new head coach, and coaching staff, Hurts biggest weapon will be his legs. Unlike Wentz, Hurts can get out of situations, as we’ve seen in the four games he played. He will have to do more of that in the upcoming season because Roseman does not do well in the draft. Meaning, the team has needs that seem to be overlooked all the time.
Like an offensive line. Who wants to be the quarterback when you know that the line in front of you can’t keep the defense from getting to you? Plus, they are up against the salary cap and won’t have a ton of money to spend in free agency.
The Eagles will have to either draft a quarterback in the later round or pick one up in free agency. Either way, 2021 and beyond are not looking promising. Until they finish paying Wentz’s salary for the next year, there just won’t be any big-time money to spend.
This whole situation is just sad on all levels. The Eagles gave up a lot to the Browns for the number two pick in 2016 to get Wentz. In the trade, The Eagles gave up the No. 8 overall pick along with a third-round and fourth-round picks in 2016, a 2017 first-round pick, and a 2018 second-round pick.
Wentz came out looking promising enough for the team to trade Sam Bradford and bring back Nick Foles. Before tearing his ACL, Wentz was having an MVP season, and the Eagles went on to win the Super Bowl. Since then, the Eagles have failed to build around Wentz, which is a cause for concern with Hurts.
If they couldn’t build a team for Wentz, what makes you think they will do it for Hurts. On top of that, the Eagles fired Doug Pederson and brought the Colts to the Eagles, and it still wasn’t enough to convince Wentz to stay.
Everyone outside the organization knows the Eagles need to make front-office changes, and Lurie refuses to do that. He thinks that Howie Roseman is going to fix this team. Roseman has repeatedly proven time and time again that he can’t draft quality players to make the team better.
Instead, Roseman is a bad used car salesman. He makes questionable decisions and, in this case, tried to get more for Wentz when other GMs knew Wentz wasn’t worth what the Eagles were asking for, which says a lot.
Wentz got what he wanted, and now he goes to a team with a good owner, a good GM who knows how to build a football team, a familiar head coach in Frank Reich, and an offensive line who will protect him. It’s up to Wentz to prove that he is still capable of being a good quarterback.
He will have to prove that if only the Eagles gave him an offensive line and some weapons, he could carry a team not just to the playoffs but also to the Super Bowl.
