Quarterback controversy just one of many offseason issues
Before the Zoom doomsters had a chance Monday to crown Carson Wentz as the re-appointed starting quarterback, Eagles coach Doug Pederson broke a personal record for fastest factual response at a press postmortum.
“I am going to start Jalen (Hurts) again this week, going into Week 17,” Pederson cyber-bellowed at the top of the Zoom session. “I definitely want to continue to evaluate not only him, but the rest of the team and where we are moving forward.”
Where are they? Nowhere, of course.
Took 15 games for them to be eliminated from playoff contention, which in normal times wouldn’t be so hard to understand. But with the NFC East looking like an AFL (Arena Football League, that is) throwback division, this Eagles season will rightly go down as a disgrace.
It also should be remembered for the way that Golden Boy quarterback Wentz, who was signed to a four-year, $128 million contract extension in 2019, wound up running coffee on the sidelines during the season’s last month. All the while, Hurts will try to forget his three-turnover performance in Dallas in time to salvage a little pride Sunday against that equally chaotic QB club, the Washington Football Team.
You want a quarterback mess? Well, you’ve got one in Philadelphia. But at least you’ve got two quarterbacks, too, as opposed to the WFT
(I know that acronym looks obscene but that’s what the whole division is), which decided Monday that Dwayne Haskins’ anti-viral behavior both on and off the field warranted his outright release.
This despite the 2019 first-round pick leaving $8.5 million in dead salary-cap space for the Washington budget counters to fret over next year.
Not that anyone is comparing or anything ... but that Haskins dead salary figure is some $26 million or so shy of what a Carson Wentz excise trade would leave for the Eagles’ cap calculations for 2021.
The Eagles are more than 18 months removed from signing Wentz to that oh-so rich extension deal, yet it doesn’t kick in until the 2021 season. For those that believe three or four Hurts starts will be enough to warrant the Birds’ cutting ties with Wentz, just know that contract would have to be greatly chopped up and restructured to make any kind of trade possible.
That would take a virtual green light from Wentz, which shouldn’t be so difficult to acquire. But it would also mandate a trade partner that makes sense, and with Wentz coming off such an awful season, the potential partners would be few and far between.
What makes sense? Well, the Indianapolis Colts have a head coach in Frank Reich, who was Wentz’s guru/offensive coordinator in his relatively fabulous first two seasons with the Eagles. They also have a 39-year-old starting quarterback in Philip Rivers who played this season on a fully guaranteed, oneyear, $25 million deal.
The Colts have won 10 games but need a lot of help to make the playoffs. Either way, they need a younger, more money manageable quarterback next season.
While we’re at it, New England would probably want to show Cam Newton the door as he wraps up his unimpressive one-year service there, and Denver, while trying to unlock the mystery of young QB Drew Lock, might opt to make a swap for a bent but maybe not broken talent in trouble like Wentz.
That’s just to name a few teams, and there are likely more than a few others who could be intrigued by the prospect of a Wentz refurbishing project ... if not for that contract getting in the way.
Presuming he’s here to stay, then, Wentz’s cap hit and contract term slap the Eagles silly. They also create an interesting scenario, then, if he were to enter training camp knowing full well that he’ll have to earn a starting role away from the sleeker, faster, and more stylish Hurts, who has looked like more of a leader in recent weeks than Wentz did previously this season.
Of course, this quarterback dilemma is but one issue for an Eagles team facing a slew of them. Their areas of need are everywhere.
Take Fletcher Cox out of a defensive line alignment already missing defensive ends Derek Barnett and Josh Sweat and behold Cowboys quarterback Andy Dalton pick apart the Eagles’ always vulnerable secondary.
Put DeSean Jackson in for one play that results in an 81-yard touchdown, then take him away for just about every other play the rest of the way, and behold Hurts looking suspiciously similar to Wentz’s 2020 look.
And how can an unhealthy D-Jack and unhappy Zach Ertz still have one year left on their respective contract deals? Don’t expect either one of them to be around later to answer.
Who else of note might be headed out? Well, a bunch of other guys, obviously. That is, if they’re healthy enough to get out of bed to walk away.
“You’ve got to look at the injuries, No. 1, and the amount that’s piled up on us and the amount of guys on injured reserve,” Pederson said in trying to explain how it all went so wrong. “That, to me, has been one of the biggest things that has affected our football team. ... You look at our team yesterday and there are so many new faces out there, so many young players out there playing. It’s been that way the last couple of seasons.
“Look at the offensive line. Let’s just start there. You lose Brandon Brooks in the offseason. Andre Dillard goes down, then Lane (Johnson) and J.P. (Jason Peters); your entire O-line. Isaac (Seumalo) is out for eight weeks. ... How are you going to get continuity there?”
Well, building depth through the draft would have helped, as would less reliance on too many players with long NFL resumes that are short on health.
In short, there have been too many management decisions gone awry which have caused consternation around the team and in the owner’s box.
The secondary needs an almost complete overhaul, as does the offensive line. The defensive line has good pieces, but how much longer can Cox and Brandon Graham be counted upon to be as effective as they’ve been for so long?
The offense is in transition; with Miles Sanders, Dallas Goedert, Hurts and (maybe) Jalen Reagor ready to take ownership, but Ertz likely on his way out and Jackson and Alshon Jeffery too hurt or long in tooth to help.
And then there’s Wentz, stuck somewhere in between, wondering along with everyone else what the future might behold.