Now We Know Why Wentz Wanted Out
October 20, 2025
Five years ago, when we were all puzzled by the behavior of the Eagles franchise quarterback, Carson Wentz. For some odd reason, the talented young leader didn’t want to compete with a second-round pick named Jalen Hurts for the starting job.
Back then, it made no sense. Wentz was part of the 2017 championship team, and his MVP performance in the first 12 games of that season certified him as one of the best young quarterbacks in football.
He also was signed for six more years at $154 million.
He was 27 years old.
Well, if you were watching Wentz face Hurts on Sunday in Minneapolis, you no longer wonder what Wentz was thinking before he forced the trade to Indianapolis in 2021. Wentz was thinking what we all were thinking during the 28-22 Eagles win.
Jalen Hurts is better than Carson Wentz. A lot better. And Wentz sensed as much on the first day of their first training camp together. He saw Hurts run faster, throw better and lead more effectively. He saw somebody who lifted the performances of everyone around him.
More than anything, Wentz saw the writing on the wall. In the long run, he had no chance in a competition with Hurts. It’s the basic difference between real greatness and fake greatness. Even then, Wentz knew he was a pretender.
On Sunday, Wentz made some aesthetically pleasing throws during the game. He still has a powerful arm. Unfortunately for him, two of those passes landed in the hands of Eagles defenders, one for a touchdown.
Once a choker, always a choker.
Meanwhile, Hurts saved his coaching staff another week of hand wringing with a performance that ranks among his very best. From my perspective, he once again was able to hide the foibles of his clueless bosses, and especially offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
Sunday’s matchup with Minnesota was ideally suited to the most haphazard play-callers. The Vikings have a lousy run defense. The Eagles have Saquon Barkley. Any questions so far?
Somehow Patullo could devise nothing to spring Barkley into the open. Last season’s MVP averaged 2.4 yards per carry. His numbers for the season amount to less than half what he did in the Super-Bowl year, when Kellen Moore was his OC.
The next deceptive, creative play the Eagles offense runs this year will be its first. The Eagles are using motion less than any team in the NFL – a recurring theme with Sirianni – and they are relying more and more on an offensive line that is injured, aging and, in the case of journeyman Brett Toth, awful.
Anybody who tells you Patullo dialed up those big throws by Hurts that won the game is either too dumb to understand football or just plain lying.
The first one to Brown was obviously an improv. You can see the QB waved his are at Brown before lofting a perfect spiral down the sideline for a touchdown. The game-clinching throw in the same area to Brown clearly was an audible at the line just before the snap. And the bombs to Devonta Smith looked suspiciously like the on-field, in-the-moment handiwork of Hurts, and not the brain power of Patullo.
So, despite the win, there are two obvious problems the Eagles haven’t solved. The offensive line is unreliable now, and the play-calling has in no way adjusted to that new reality.
What happens when the Eagles face a better opponent and Hurts doesn’t record a perfect 158 passer rating the way he did on Sunday? What happens when the opposing quarterback is not Carson Wentz? What happens when the Eagles need a smart play-call in a close, important game?
In all likelihood, they lose. That’s what happens.
The defense doesn’t offer the same level of concern, but all you need to know there is that Brandon Graham is about to come out of retirement because no one on the current roster can rush the quarterback.
Through the first seven games, the Eagles have nine sacks. Ex-Birds DE Josh Sweat alone has five in Arizona.
Thanks for nothing, Howie Roseman.
At 37, Graham is coming back because the GM didn’t replace the good defensive players he lost. For that matter, Roseman did nothing to add depth to the offensive line after allowing Mekhi Becton to leave in free agency.
Between those mistakes in judgment and approving the promotion of Patullo, it’s safe to say Roseman won’t be winning any GM-of-the-year awards this season.
Meanwhile, back on Sunday, fate was smiling down on Nick Sirianni again – this time in the form of Carson Wentz. With Wentz on the other sideline, the margin for error widens dramatically.
There’s a very good reason he has played for six teams in the past six years. Personnel people watch the tape of his powerful throws, and they convince themselves that they can fix what’s wrong with the aging quarterback. Of course, this is a major miscalculation. What’s wrong with Wentz is the area well above his arm.
After the game, his coach, Kevin O’Connor, made a comment that was far more ironic than he ever could have imagined.
“I thought he competed,” the Minnesota coach said.
Actually, it’s always just the opposite with Wentz. He didn’t want to compete with Hurts, sending his career into the abyss. And he doesn’t compete when it truly matters. If you were watching on Sunday, you already know this.
And the sad part is, Wentz has known it, too – ever since that first day of training camp with Jalen Hurts.
Some guys are winners.
Some guys are not.
Rob Thomson, whose failure to succeed in the playoffs for four years running, was rewarded last week with a vote of confidence and a one-year contract extension, ensuring at least one (if not two) more seasons ending too early and too stupidly.
Is GM Dave Dombrowski going senile?
Is owner John Middleton no longer the guy who wanted “my damn trophy back” 17 years ago?
Is the media more interested these days in making friends instead of waves?
I got a great question via email last week when a frustrated Phillies fan asked if Thomson is surviving only because of the kinder, gentler media of today.
Maybe.
All I know for sure is that I would be beating the drum, every day, all four hours on WIP, to have the Phillies send Thomson into his long-planned retirement immediately. I imagine some fans would have gotten behind my campaign. It’s even possible that the clamor would reach the front office of the team.
There was a lot less room for failure a decade ago than there is now because media people look more for moral victories, more for redefined successes, than in my radio days.
Failure was not an option here in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and even 10s.
Now it is. And that’s a shame.
Hey, I’m no genius either. I honestly believed that the idiotic bunt that cost the Phillies game 2 of the NLDS would be the death knell for a manager whose strategies have won nothing despite one of the best Phillies rosters in their history.
Back when I was at WIP, some people would cringe when I demanded the firing of a Philadelphia sports figure.
“Do you realize the man has a family?”
“Don’t you care that he’s a terrific person?”
“Aren’t you afraid you’re hurting his feelings”?
The disconnect for the pantywaists who espouse this soft narrative is that there are millions of fans who have families, too. And lots of them are terrific people – people who spend more than their budget allows to support their team.
They deserve the best shot at the ultimate prize, a parade.
They will not get that as long as Rob Thomson is the manager.
That’s what I care the most about.