2016 – Rookie Year
Carson Wentz is SO injury prone!
Yeah? Well during his rookie year, Wentz started all 16 games for the Eagles.
During that year, Wentz became the second rookie ever to attempt more than 600 passes in a season (Andrew Luck is only other player to do so). His 607 pass attempts in 2016 is second to Luck’s 627 set in 2012.
Sure his rating could’ve been better, which was 79.3, but he still had 3,782 yards passing, good for fourth ALL-TIME in Eagles history. He also completed the most passes in Eagles history. He was a rookie and he made it into the top five of a couple of all-time records. Pretty good, don’t you think?
2017 – MVP-Caliber
I’m sure you remember this remarkable year, but let me remind you.
Carson Wentz started 13 games for the Eagles in 2017, before getting hit the wrong way while diving for a touchdown (which ended up not counting) and tearing his ACL, something that could happen to absolutely any player. You wouldn’t have immediately known he tore his ACL on that play though since he stayed in for four more plays and did this:
He then left the game and Nick Foles took over, which ended up working out, in the end, don’t you think? But the work that Wentz did over those 13 games cannot be overlooked.
He passed for 3,296 yards, 620 yards short of the Eagles single season record of 3,916. In the next three games, if he hadn’t suffered that injury, he would’ve needed to average 206.7 yards per game to tie that record. If he would’ve averaged his season average of 253.5 yards per game over that time frame, he would’ve been the first quarterback in Eagles history to pass for over 4,000 yards.
Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, right?
So how about we talk about what he actually did. In 13 games, Wentz threw for 33 touchdowns. One more than the Eagles all-time record of 32, which Sonny Jurgensen set in 14 games. His completion percentage did take a dip from his rookie year, 62.4% to 60.2%, but that does not diminish the fact that he was the leading candidate of the league’s MVP discussion.
Winning the award was Tom Brady, who had 32 touchdowns in 16 games, and also lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles. Russell Wilson won the passing touchdowns title, with 34, but started all 16 games as well. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t believe Wentz would’ve won the MVP if he didn’t get hurt.
Although everything fell into place that postseason, and you can see my letter to Nick Foles here about that, but the Eagles don’t make it to the postseason without Wentz’s performance and the 11-2 record that came with it.
2018 – The Return
Wentz wasn’t fully recovered to start the season, so Foles started the first two games for him. After a 1-1 start, Wentz was deemed healthy to come back.
After 11 games, Wentz was shut down again due to a stress fracture in his back. After a 5-6 record, the 6-7 Eagles went 3-0 with Nick Foles to reach the postseason again.
Wow, 5-6 record, he was terrible!
In 11 games, Wentz threw for 21 touchdowns, an average of 1.9 per game. He also completed 69.58% of his passes, over 9 percentage points higher than in 2017. This was an Eagles record until Foles broke it at the end of the season with 72.31%. Wentz also avergaed 279.5 yards per game, over 20 yards more than the year before, and also an Eagles record until Foles broke it at the end of the season with 282.6.
Two fewer games for Wentz in 2018 than in 2017, and he was better. He needed just 222 more passing yards to tie his 2017 yardage total, and he was on pace for 3,912 yards if he played those last three games. His passer rating of 102.2 was better than his 2017 rating of 101.9, and both are in the top five all-time of Eagles single-season passer ratings.
Sure he may have rushed himself back too quickly, but he was still outstanding in 2018. The stats back it up.
But he favors Zach Ertz way too much! Foles distributed the ball more! Well..
