The Sad Truth About Carson Wentz
Over the past decade, the Eagles have relied on two franchise quarterbacks, with a cameo by a third, and there may never be a better lesson in the difference between winners and losers than this.
Carson Wentz. Jalen Hurts. Nick Foles.
Technically, all three own championship rings, though – based on previous comments – only two quarterbacks are proud of the achievement.
The third, Wentz, has well-chronicled “mixed feelings” about the championship 2017 Eagles team that he led to a 10-2 record before a serious knee injury put him on the sidelines for the final run to the franchise’s first Super-Bowl victory.
Because I was always looking for the most intriguing angles (at least in my own mind) on WIP, I often asked in the years after the first Eagles parade whether the Birds would have still had their life-altering triumph if Wentz had stayed healthy during that MVP season.
My answer has always been no. I may have even suggested some divine guidance in the improbable way Foles took over the offense and made winning plays with no fears, including the famous Philly Special.
Would Wentz have prospered under similar circumstances?
The polls I conducted back then always favored Wentz, usually with about a 70 percent plurality. His supporters loved to point out how brilliantly he played that season. There was no reason to believe he would recoil at the pressure as it built toward the Super Bowl.
As we now know, Wentz was, is and will always be a choker. The intervening seasons here and then with the Colts, Commanders, Rams and Chiefs have established a pattern that is not really disputable. When the games got big, he got small.
Still, there are many doubters out there. That’s why I was so delighted to hear an honest – and pretty much objective – voice emerge last week with some new insights into Wentz’s delicate psyche.
Golden Tate, a late addition to the Eagles receiving corps in 2018, described the difference in nature between Wentz and Foles during the season after that championship year.
“And so you had Carson, who, . . . . after a bad game, he’s reading to see people absolutely shitting on him. I would walk up in the bus and just kind of see him (slinks down in chair), to himself. Like, ‘It’s OK, bro, just bounce back.’
“And then you had Foles, who, coming to the locker room, he spoke with everybody. I wouldn’t get a single pass the entire game, but in the fourth quarter, he’d make you think it was still coming. ‘Hey, Golden, stay ready. I’m coming to you.’ ”
In other words, Wentz was too sensitive to succeed in the NFL at the highest levels, too soft to ever prevail in Philadelphia and too haunted by criticism to ever fulfill his potential.
Today, both Foles and Wentz are done with football. They both announced their retirements over the past year, though I’m betting this Carson news is surprising to many readers right now. His decision in April received almost no attention here – just the way he always preferred it.
By every measure, Wentz had more talent than Foles. His feet were quicker, his arm stronger. He was a first-round draft choice – the second pick, in fact, — while Foles went 88th in the third round. Wentz was a star, Foles a journeyman.
And yet, when it mattered most, Foles had the mentality of a winner. That’s how he threaded that fourth-down pass to Zach Ertz late in Super Bowl 52 that saved the game. That why he had the confidence to call a gadget play against the greatest coach (arguably) in NFL history, Bill Belichick.
Above all, that’s why the Eagles won the Super Bowl that season.
And that’s why the Eagles would never have won with Wentz behind center in the biggest games of his life.
Some players bask in the spotlight.
Others gasp for air. (Just ask Donovan McNabb.)
The fact that Jalen Hurts was the quarterback in Super Bowl 59 that led the Eagles to their second parade completes the circle of this three-character narrative.
Remember, it was after the Eagles drafted Hurts in the second round in 2020 that Wentz began his final descent as the team’s franchise quarterback.
Did Wentz see this new kid at training camp and realize Jalen had the one ingredient Carson would always lack – courage under fire? Did he realize it was only a matter of time before Hurts would surpass him on the depth chart, and in the affections of the coaching staff and fan base?
All I can offer in response to those questions is one of the most memorable interviews I ever conducted in my 50-year media career. It was with the most honest coach I ever encountered, Doug Pederson, midway through that 2020 season when I asked if he was considering Hurts as his new No. 1.
“I think if you get to that spot where you don’t start (Wentz), or you bench him, you’re sending the wrong message to your football team,” Pederson told me. “That the season’s over. That’s a bad message.”
Need I remind everyone that, two seasons earlier, the Eagles won the Super Bowl after Wentz was benched, albeit by an injury. What Pederson was trying to say was, if he benched Wentz, he would lose the player for good because the quarterback was unable to handle that level of adversity.
Two weeks later, Pederson made the change anyway. The Eagles floundered to a 4-11-1 season. Pederson was fired shortly after the final game. Wentz got traded later that off-season. An era was over.
It took Hurts a couple of seasons to find his swagger, but then he led the Birds to a Super-Bowl appearance in 2022-23 and the awesome win last February.
By all accounts, Hurts has the same intestinal fortitude that Foles had, and that Wentz lacked.
So what’s the moral of this story?
There are two, actually.
First, the Eagles would still have zero Super-Bowl victories if Wentz were still the franchise quarterback. (This would actually be the final season of the six-year, $154-million extension he signed here in 2019.)
And second, a player can have all the talent in the world, but if he doesn’t also possess the will to block out all the noise and to win, he has nothing, really.
Carson Wentz had one of the greatest starts in the history of the Eagles in 2017, a performance that exceeded that of the NFL’s GOAT, Tom Brady.
But would he have finished that season the same way?
Not a chance.
A few other thoughts. . . . .
- The Phillies have lost nine out of 10 after a sweep by the horrible Pirates over the weekend. When asked after Sunday’s loss if he was considering a change in the lineup of his slumping offense, manager Rob Thomson said he was thinking about it. Hey, no hurry, boss. The Mets are only 4½ games ahead in the NL East. No hurry at all.
- Last week Giants pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux cited some moronic stat that half of the Eagles fan base is functionally illiterate. Hmmmm. What does that make Giants fans? They have been paying premium prices for the past 13 years since their team was in its last Super Bowl, watching underachievers like Thibodeaux languish through one awful season after another. If he wasn’t such a dumbass himself, Thibodeaux would ask his former teammate, Saquon Barkley, about Eagles fans.
- As the sexual-assault trial determining the future of Carter Hart and other NHL players unfolds in Ontario, I just learned that the Flyers no longer own his rights. Did I miss this, or did it not get much media attention here? The team declined the qualifying offer to retain him last year. So even if he is acquitted, he will be a free agent, not a Flyer. Stories don’t get much more depressing than this.
- The debate continues about how Sixers GM Daryl Morey will use the third pick in the NBA draft next month. The consensus is, Morey will choose either of two Rutgers kids, Ace Bailey or Dylan Harper. My bet is, Morey will pick the wrong one. I base this solely on the GM’s recent track record.
- In my retirement, I find myself wrapped up, more and more, every week in the drama of the PGA tour. I’m being serious here. This is very strange since I did nothing but mock the slow, dull sport in my long career in radio. Now, every Sunday, I’m grunting or cheering after every big putt. I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with me.