What a disaster move this turned out to be. The Washington Commanders have ended the reign of Carson Wentz after just a single season as they cut the QB today, making him a free agent for the first time in his career.
Is anybody really shocked that this move blew up in the Commanders face?
Carson Wentz and his career have been on a downward spiral for the better part of the last four years as he crashed and burned out of Philly (after helping them win a Super Bowl in 2018), was one of the biggest reasons why the Colts missed the playoffs two years ago even though Indy SPECIFALLY traded for him to push them over the playoff hump, and regressed into an abomination of the quarterback he once was during the year he spent with the Commanders.
Unfortunately, the guy simply never progressed into a consistent starting QB in this league as injuries, overconfidence in his own ability, and a general distaste from management for his style of play derailed his development. There’s a reason why he will be on his fourth team in the last four years if he’s signed during this free agent period, and it’s largely because he was one of the worst decision makers in the NFL.
If you just watched one Commanders/Eagles/Colts game over the last three seasons with Wentz as the starting QB, you’d see exactly why Eagles GM Howie Roseman (who went to the Super Bowl this year), Colts GM Chris Ballard (who has drafted 3 All-Pros in his time with Indy), and new Commanders GM Martin Mayhew ditched Wentz as soon as possible: he makes HORRIBLE READS.
In his last three years, he’s thrown 54 TD passes and 31 INTs for a TD-INT ratio of 1.7. So, in other words, he’s throwing less than 2 TDs for every interception he foolishly whizzes into the face of a linebacker or defensive back, which is obviously a dreadful statistic.
Just for comparison, Jared Goff (the #1 overall pick in Wentz’s 2016 draft class) has thrown for 68 TD passes and 28 INTs for a 2.4 TD-INT ratio, Dak Prescott (the #135 overall pick in 2016) has thrown 90 TD passes and 37 INTs for a 2.5 TD-INT ratio in his last three healthy seasons (2019, 2021, 2022), Deshaun Watson (the #12 pick in the 2017 draft) has thrown 66 TD passes and 24 INTs for a 2.8 TD-INT ratio in his last three complete seasons (2019, 2020, 2022), and Patrick Mahomes (the #10 pick in the 2017 draft) has thrown 116 TD passes and 31 INTs for a godly TD-INT ratio of 3.7.
Clearly, Wentz is just turning the ball over way too much for the scoring output he brings to whatever team he is on.
Sure, he has great arm strength and is one of the toughest QBs in the game, but it’s all negated when he’s throwing silly picks to linebackers or defensive backs because he hasn’t learned their coverages and schemes. I guarantee half of the 66 INTs Wentz has thrown in his career could have been avoided if he didn’t abandon his team’s gameplan and just fling up a hopeful pass that got picked off 50% of the time.
I mean, such passes and decisions are the reason why Jalen Hurts took his job in Philly was because he’s a far better reader of the game, even though he doesn’t have nearly as good of an arm as the former 2nd overall pick in 2016.
I hope this isn’t the end of Carson Wentz’s time in the NFL as he does have the natural talents and ability to play in the league, which should make him a serviceable backup for 20-25 teams. But being a backup is all he can be at this point as he’s burnt all of his starting bridges.
A GM would be either foolish or stupid to trust Carson Wentz to lead their, respective, franchise given how he’s damaged each team he’s been on since 2018.
So, if Wentz is willing to accept being a backup, such as how Mitchell Trubisky (#3 overall pick in 2017) was in Buffalo and Marcus Mariota (#2 overall pick in 2015) in Las Vegas a few years ago, then he should definitely be on a roster come OTAs.
As for the Commanders, I guess this means Sam Howell is the starting QB. Or Taylor Heinicke? Or maybe will they draft a QB this year? Only God knows with that dysfunctional organization.
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