Sunday Hot Takes: Philadelphia Eagles Should Play Carson Wentz
By Ryan Disdier
The Philadelphia Eagles have a decision to make in regard to rookie quarterback Carson Wentz. The options are to play him right away, or hold him off as long as possible. Both options have pros and cons.
When the Philadelphia Eagles traded with the Tennessee Titans to obtain the No. 2 overall pick, it was almost a guarantee they would be taking a quarterback. That’s exactly what happened, as the Eagles made North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz the second quarterback off the board.
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Now, after all the hype and offseason fun has taken place — including Wentz getting locked in a gas station bathroom. Yikes — the Eagles have a bit of a pickle on their hands
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I like to listen to Philly sports radio on my way home from work — 97.5, to be exact — and there’s at least three or five callers per ride who ask about what the Eagles will do with Wentz.
The Eagles need to decide how they want to utilize Wentz in his first year. That’s the age-old conundrum teams face when they take a quarterback early, but still have a seasoned veteran on the roster.
As of right now, the plan appears to be for Wentz to be on the sideline during games. According to Jimmy Kempski of the Philly Voice, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson intents to deactivate Wentz on game days.
It’s a controversial move, as fans axiomatically want to see their team’s top draft pick in action. I don’t blame them. Not getting to see a top pick in action is like getting a new car when you’re 15, and having to wait until you can drive to use it.
So what should the Eagles do?
Well, when examining when to play a rookie signal caller, I like to look at the Jacksonville Jaguars. In two instances, the Jaguars had an early first-round quarterback, and attempted to have them learn from the sidelines.
In 2011, Blaine Gabbert was taken with the 11th overall pick, and didn’t appear in the team’s first two contests. Gabbert took over the starting reigns in week three, and finished the season with 12 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Gabbert’s career spiraled out of control, until he recently found his footing in San Francisco.
Gabbert is an example of a young quarterback getting a chance to gain experience, and failing.
In 2014, the Jags took Blake Bortles third overall. The plan was for Bortles to do more learning than playing in his first year. But with Chad Henne proving to be, well, Chad Henne, the Jags were forced to let Bortles out of his bottle sooner than expected.
Bortles has, of course, developed into a great young quarterback with a gun-slingers mentality.
Which brings us to Wentz. If the team decides to deactivate Wentz for game days, he will get a chance to learn, sure. So that’s a pro.
But the guy he’ll be learning from isn’t exactly an elite quarterback. Sam Bradford, the incumbent starter, has proven to be nothing more than an average quarterback. Actually, that’s probably the only ‘pro’ that would come from Wentz not seeing the field much in his rookie year.
Here are the cons:
First, the fan base would be pretty irked, and for good reason. Having to watch Wentz stew on the sideline for the better part of his rookie campaign would be like getting an Xbox One for Christmas, but not being able to use it until April.
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Additionally, like I previously mentioned, Bradford is not a good quarterback. What that means is he’ll likely fail to guide the team to a positive start. So by the time Pederson decides its time to play Wentz, it may very well be too late.
If you want to break it down into layman’s terms, Wentz is the future and Bradford is more of the past than he is the present. Failing to give Wentz a chance to play in meaningful action would prove to be detrimental to his development.
I see a lot of Blake Bortles in Carson Wentz. Aside from physical traits, I think Wentz will experience some of the same growing pains Bortles did in his rookie year.
There’s a good chance that Bradford fails to do anything extraordinary during his playing time, which will lead the fan base to salivating over Wentz. If Wentz were playing behind a top-15 quarterback, then yes, sitting him for a year would make sense.
I think sitting Wentz for more than, let’s say eight games, would make 2016 a wasted season for the Eagles.
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I don’t, and never will, view Sam Bradford as a top 10 quarterback. The dude’s average. So I think he will falter, and the Wentz experiment will be started before the Eagles had envisioned. However, it’ll be a good thing for the Eagles, as Wentz will get a chance to shine.
I was once told that this is like when Aaron Rodgers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers and sat behind Brett Favre. This situation is nothing like that, unless you think Bradford will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.