That Hurts! Eagles finally sit Wentz
The Eagles officially benched quarterback Carson Wentz on Tuesday, with head coach Doug Pederson announcing the team will turn to 2020 second-round draft pick Jalen Hurts for Sunday’s game against the Saints. The move was arguably past due — Wentz leads the NFL in interceptions (15) and is 30th among qualified QBs in passer rating (72.8), a large reason the Eagles have struggled to a 3-8-1 record this season.
The problem for the Eagles is that just 18 months ago, the team signed Wentz to a four-year, $128 million contract extension with almost $70 million guaranteed — and the deal hasn’t kicked in yet. The new deal begins in 2021, after his rookie contract expires.
The Eagles gave themselves an insurance policy at the position by drafting Hurts, and they will turn to him far earlier than they thought would be necessary. But now, the player with the sixth-most guaranteed money at signing in NFL history is sitting on the bench, and it’ll be extremely difficult for them to move on.
In 2021, Wentz will count for $35 million against the Eagles’ cap, an already gigantic number that will look even more intimidating if the cap shrinks (as is expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic). If they cut him, he will cost the team a $59 million dead-cap penalty.
In short, it’s a non-starter. In 2022, the dead-cap penalty goes down to around $24 million if Wentz were to be released, a still-too-hefty figure. The first year the Eagles could reasonably let him go is 2023, when they would save $19 million in space despite a still-large dead cap hit.
The Eagles could trade Wentz, which would save them some money in 2021 — albeit not much, with a dead cap hit of around $33 million — and erase him from the books completely in 2022. But Wentz’s value couldn’t possibly get any lower than it is right now.
The best-case scenario for the Eagles would be for Wentz to return to his previous form in 2021 and reaffirm himself as the long-term starter. Which might mean they would have to find a trade partner for Hurts. But it’s much easier to trade a promising quarterback on a cheap deal than a bad quarterback on an astronomically expensive one.