Not many quarterbacks have had a fall from grace quite like Carson Wentz. It’s almost comical to think that he was once in the discussion of being an MVP candidate before suffering an injury that would turn his career upside down.
Wentz is now back in the NFC East after his first and only year with the Colts did not end well. He will now face the Eagles twice a year and they would likely love to see him on the opposite side of the field. He’ll make his return to the Linc in Week 10 when Washington makes a Monday Night Football appearance in South Philly.
If the latest report from Commanders’ camp is any indication, Wentz will be looking like a shell of his former self during that game as well as other games to come.
NBC Sports Washington reporter Pete Hailey joined 106.7 The Fan’s Grant & Danny to give an update on how Wentz has looked through two weeks of training camp and it is not going well.
“HAILEY: It doesn’t sound good from afar, and it doesn’t look very good up close either. I’m trying to balance the, ‘We’re still five weeks away from the season, people are starving for updates about this team, let’s not feed the beast too much and let everybody get completely crazy and run into the streets with no clothes on because they don’t know how to react.’
“However, it’s a little bit worse than I expected. Carson coming here was a 63% completion percentage passer, and a guy who’s been let go by two previous teams. You’re not expecting him to look like Patrick Mahomes, to dot this defense up and go 9-of-10 every time he’s in the lineup. Right? You knew there were going to be flaws, or otherwise he wouldn’t be here in the first place. But the flaws are just a little uglier, so far, than I expected them to be.
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“G&D: Is it bad ball placement? Is this 11-on-11 where he’s missing open guys? What are the issues that you’re seeing?
“HAILEY: It’s everything, and it’s in the on-air drills that are the beginning of practice where typically, alright, the guys run a quick comeback, they run a five-yard out, then they run a slant, then they work the intermediate stuff, then they run a 12-yard out, then a 12-yard in, then some post stuff. There, Carson is not nearly as efficient as he should be. [Taylor] Heinicke and [Sam] Howell, for the most part, the ball is where the receivers need it. […] With Carson it’s not a coin flip, but there are times where you have no idea if this ball’s gonna land in Cam Sims’ breadbasket, go way over Cam Sims’ hands, or hit Cam Sims in the shoelaces. It continues into the team stuff.
[…]
“I have deducted one win from projected win total this year, going from 10 to nine, because the Carson Wentz bad has far outweighed the good thus far.”
Hailey went on to say that Wentz is still the best of the three quarterbacks in camp.
“Wentz is definitely still the best,” he said. “I still think Ron should give Wentz an incredibly long leash, because this is the only guy who could really hopefully, possibly elevate the team. The other two are gonna either just keep it afloat or be something of a long-term project. So Wentz needs to be the starter and he needs to be the starter for a long time. You give him every chance to hit the ground running, and if it doesn’t start at the beginning, to hit the ground running in October. But he is not so much better that it’s like, ‘Okay, phew. This is exactly it.’ It’s just been closer all throughout than you’d like it to be.”
Wentz has yet to take a meaningful snap in a game for the Commanders and everything is already trending in the wrong direction.
Last season, the 29-year-old Wentz appeared in all 17 games for the Colts and completed 62.4 percent of his passes for 3,563 yards, 27 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 215 yards and one touchdown.
