Another offseason is passing by and somehow Carson Wentz has found himself in the middle of a dogpile of criticism. How could this be? The franchise QB went on a run in the last four weeks of the season as he went 4-0 while throwing for 1,199 passing yards, 7 touchdowns, and no interceptions. He did all of this while playing with receivers who started the season on the practice squad, players who were afterthoughts in their own city. So why is Wentz still in the doghouse after all of this?
In 2017, Carson Wentz led the Eagles to an 11-2 start before he went down against the Rams and tore his ACL. He finished that season with a franchise-record 33 touchdowns and passed for 3,296 yards. He was the number one candidate for MVP until that very moment since then the football world has frowned upon the former NDSU Bison.
All of this debate has left me wondering, questioning if maybe I’m being too biased towards the Eagles franchise QB. So I went ahead and researched numbers of other QB’s to face off against Carson Wentz. To be fair, I looked at the numbers for each of these QB’s first four seasons. I dared myself to have Wentz face off against Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers(to a certain degree due to him riding the bench), and Drew Brees. Heres where Wentz is ranked among the future hall of famers.
Wentz has played the second-most games (56) out of the four. Manning was the only one to play more with 64. Now let’s take into account the starts that Brady and Rodgers had and move on from there. Wentz also has the second-best QB record behind Brady and is ahead of Manning.
Moving on to numbers now, Carson leads the four other QB’s in completion percentage with 63.8%, but he’s second to only Manning in passing yards with 14,191. In Manning’s first four-seasons, the legendary QB threw 111 touchdowns while Brady threw 69, Brees threw 56, and Rodgers threw 29. Again, Rodgers is so much of the focus just yet due to him riding behind Favre. As for Carson Wentz, the Eagles QB has thrown 97 touchdowns with no true number one wide receiver. Let that sink in for a minute. Do you feel your eyebrows raising yet?
Now while Manning threw for the most touchdowns, he also turned the ball over more with 81 interceptions. Brees and Brady both followed with 38 apiece and Carson has only thrown 35 interceptions.
Now the one unfortunate knock to Carson’s career is that he’s been sacked 129 times already and he coughs up the ball a lot. There are so many variables to this. At times Wentz has been criticized for holding onto the ball too long but how can you let the ball fly when there’s no one open to catch it? I’m sorry, but have you ever seen Alshon Jeffery burn his defender? Have you ever witness Nelson Agholor catching a deep pass in traffic? Yeah, neither have I. It happens, Right?
I mean Rodgers had Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb for the majority of their careers while the other QB’s have their fair share of reliable hands and deep threats. Wentz had one deep threat in his career and it happened in only one game for his career. Unfortunately, we know how the DeSean Jackson saga ended last season.
Now the argument from most media “analysts” is that Wentz has yet to play and finish a playoff game. That’s completely understandable but….C’mon, you knew there was a but coming, anyways Brady was the only one out of this group to even win a playoff game. Brady went 6-0 in the playoffs in his first four seasons. Brees went 0-1, Manning went 0-2, Rodgers didn’t even play in a playoff game, and Wentz is officially 0-1 thanks to some Clown-ey. See what I did there? Ok, I’ll stop now.
The rough part in all of this is after their four seasons Wentz is the oldest of the bunch by one year. Fortunately Wentz, alongside Brady, has experience in the Super Bowl festivities. Wentz also held the Lombardi already which is an advantage. It’s the driving force to Wentz’s obsession to win in which he will win but my case here is not to convince you that he will win, its to prove that Wentz is among the Elite QB’s in the league right now.
To think Wentz is just a franchise QB right now is just cheating yourself from witnessing a great QB at work. The 27-year-old has done all that’s been asked of him in Philadelphia and now Howie Roseman has done what Wentz has asked from him. Give him unlimited speed as weapons and watch him take over. Wentz will finish his career as an all-time great, I just hope your eyes are opened enough to witness it.
Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
