We may well have seen Carson Wentz play in an Eagles uniform for the last time. According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the quarterback will be active in helping the Eagles facilitate his exit this upcoming offseason.
If it is determined that the relationship between Wentz and Pederson is indeed beyond repair, the plan will have to account for some salary-cap maneuvers. Wentz and his representatives are willing to work with general manager Howie Roseman to facilitate a move out of Philadelphia, league sources told ESPN.
This hardly comes as a surprise. Wentz ends his fifth year with the Eagles having been sacked more than any other QB in the league, despite being benched midway through the loss to Green Bay in week 12. His season saw a significant dip in production, with Wentz being haunted by interceptions, fumbles, poorly placed passes, and a total lack of help around him to help mask any kind of problems he was previously working through.
Even with Wentz helping the team work on an exit strategy, moving on from him won’t be easy. If they can’t find a suitor willing to buy-in at Philadelphia’s asking price by the third day of the league year, his $22M base salary for 2022 becomes locked in and the Eagles will owe him a further $10M.
If the Eagles did move on from Wentz in a post-June 1st trade, it would save the team $25.4 million in cap space, which is huge considering they’re nearly $70M over the threshold right now. However, nearly all of it ($24.5M) becomes dead-cap in 2022, per Spotrac.
Carson Wentz may need to agree to a contract restructure before any other steps can be taken, but according to Mike Tannenbaum, the possibility of Wentz writing the Eagles a $20M check in order to lower his dead-cap number for 2022 is a possibility.
There is no doubting that Carson Wentz will draw significant interest around the league and that the former MVP candidate has every right to want out of a team who have made life ridiculously complex for him on multiple occasions since his arrival. But for a new chapter to begin, it looks like there will still be one more hoop Wentz needs to jump through.
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