Early on Sunday morning, just hours before rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts was scheduled to make his first start for the Philadelphia Eagles, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported that the Eagles intend to keep Carson Wentz and still believe in their struggling quarterback:
Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts will make his first NFL start Sunday, but team sources told ESPN that the Eagles still have every intention to keep Carson Wentz and have him be a major part of their team.
Despite his struggles throughout this season, the Eagles still believe in Wentz, 27, as a player and a person, and they think he can return as the type of standout quarterback he once was, according to team sources.
“None of this changes the belief that people have in Carson,” one team source insisted to ESPN this weekend.
Schefter goes on to mention Wentz’s current contract and the unattractive options it presents for the Eagles if they decide they do want to move on from Wentz. Wentz’s contract extension doesn’t even kick in until next season, meaning cutting or trading him would give the Eagles an unprecedented and record-breaking amount of dead money against the 2021 salary cap.
There has been a ton of speculation about what the Eagles will do with Wentz going forward. I still think they will and should keep him and make some significant changes to the coaching staff and the roster as a whole. But if they are thinking about moving on, here are their two main options:
- If the Eagles complete a Carson Wentz trade before the third day of the 2021 league year, they would not owe him his $10 million roster bonus and the team that acquires him would take on his $25.4 million salary;
- The Eagles could cut Wentz and designate him as a post-June 1 release. In this scenario, they still would owe him his 2021 salary of $25.4 million. Wentz’s total cap hit would be $59.21 million, but if he is designated as a post-June 1 release, the team would be allowed to spread the cap charge over two years. (Editor’s note: The Eagles aren’t cutting Carson Wentz).
As for a Wentz trade, Schefter had this to add:
The Eagles then would be on the hook for $33.82 million worth of salary-cap charges — $9.27 of signing bonus proration and another $24.55 of guaranteed money from 2022 to 2024. They could not use a post-June 1 designation on a trade to spread out any cap charges. One NFL executive told ESPN this past week that the best of these scenarios might be to trade Wentz and eat the accelerated guarantees.
Should we believe this report?
Adam Schefter doesn’t make things up and is more plugged in than anyone. He absolutely spoke to someone within the Eagles organization. But does that really mean anything?
If the Eagles were planning on moving on from Carson Wentz, they probably aren’t going to leak that to Adam Schefter. They’ve been desperately trying to trade Alshon Jeffery for the better part of two years, but they have always publicly said that they like Jeffery and are eager to get him back in the lineup. This is just what teams do. Saying they are ready to move on from a player destroys any potential trade value.
Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson drafted Carson Wentz. They won with him, and he has shown over the last four seasons that he can be a great-to-elite quarterback in the NFL. They invested in him last season, and they aren’t going to turn around and abandon him less than a year later. Nor should they.
The Eagles should absolutely keep Carson Wentz for 2021 and beyond. The only question now is: should they keep Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson?
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Mike Maher is the editor and publisher of The Birds Blitz. Follow him on Twitter @mikeMaher and @TheBirdsBlitz and check out his archive for all of his latest stories about the Eagles and the NFL.
