THE WENTZ FILE
Five-time FCS National Champion, 2011-2015
Football Academic All-American of the Year, 2019
Second-team All-Pro, 2017
Super Bowl champion, LII
Signed a four-year, $128 million contract extension, 2019
By Lenn Robbins
The numbers are so solid it begs the question: What’s not right about Carson Wentz?
The Washington Commanders quarterback has thrown for more than 20,000 yards, having completed 62.6-percent of his throws, with 140 touchdowns and 57 interceptions. His career rating is 90.1. He’s 44-40-1 as a starter which isn’t great but it doesn’t make a GM hang up the phone.
So why is the former No.2 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft on his third team entering his seventh season? Multiple reports claim that Wentz is not liked in the locker room, which is a damning and curious scenario for any player but especially for a QB.
"I believe he’s gonna continue to have a lot of success at quarterback,” said Colts coach Frank Reich. “That might be here. It might not be here. But I still believe in the person, and I still believe in the player, right? I mean, we’re all in progress. I’m in progress. He’s in progress. Every one of our players is in progress.”
Well that’s very Zen of Reich but it’s highly unusual for a player who inked a four-year, $128 million contract extension with $107 million guaranteed with Eagles in 2019 to be traded less than two years later. And after one season in Indy, Wentz was on the move again, landing in Washington where the Commanders needed a quarterback as badly as most Americans needed sunblock as blistering temperatures boiled the nation this summer.
Wentz will be the Commanders starter, of that there is no question. There is also no question that he will be scrutinized off the field as much as on it. And if he’s traded after the 2022 season, it’s safe to say there’s more than smoke where there’s fire. In Wentz’s case, there’s an inferno.