The Philadelphia Eagles Must Learn to Rally Around Carson Wentz
The debate about which QB should lead The Philadelphia Eagles in 2019 has been covered from every angle except one. This Eagles team has not rallied around franchise QB Carson Wentz the way they have rallied around journeyman backup QB Nick Foles in what seems like the last two seasons in Philadelphia. Nick Foles has now filled in twice for an injured Carson Wentz and now twice he has led The Philadelphia Eagles on deep playoff runs, one of which included a Super Bowl Victory.
There is a statue of Nick Foles just outside of Lincoln Financial Field, and yet it seems like the team is going to go back to their talented but oft-injured franchise QB Carson Wentz as they will likely trade or release Philadelphia legend Nick Foles before next season. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps the team plans to do the complete opposite, however unlikely that may seem. The cases have already been made over and over and over again on which QB should stay and which QB will be gone before the 2019 season. Some believe albeit a longshot the team will stick with it’s historically most successful player in Nick Foles as they trade Carson Wentz. This comes from a smaller voice or volume if you will as to those who say that The Eagles will move forward with their 2016 first round (2nd overall selection) pick and seemingly dubbed franchise QB Carson Wentz after moving on from Nick Foles.
One man named Jeff Kerr has even suggested that there may still be a way for The Eagles to keep both players in Philadelphia for at least another season, and while I wish that were possible it just seems highly unlikely given the fact that Philadelphia is already 12 million dollars over the salary cap. I’m a fan of both players. I believe that both players can lead teams to Super Bowl Victories. That being said if I personally had to choose I would go with Nick Foles for a reason that is simply highly overlooked even though it may be the most important reason for any team to keep a football player. The next point concerns me as a proud Philadelphia Eagles fan.
This entire Philadelphia Eagles team rallies around Nick Foles. This means the Oline blocks much better for him, The WRs and TEs fight through their routes harder to get open for him, the teams RBs run harder for him (although a combination of Wendell Smallwood and an aging Darren Sproles still does not run hard enough. They really need to pick an RB via the draft ), and even the defense on the other side of the ball seems to always step up for him. It truly seems as if this Eagles team has chosen Foles as their leader. That being said the organization will still most likely roll with Carson Wentz and hope he can finally lead this team the way that Foles has in his stead. I can really only hope that the players begin to rally around Wentz in a way they haven’t yet.
I wonder if The Oline will rally around Carson Wentz and block for him the way they have for Foles. I wonder if the defense will have Wentz’s back the way they had Foles. I wonder if The skill players will fight to get open and for extra yards for Carson Wentz the way they have for Foles. It is possible. If GM Howie Roseman, Coach Doug Pederson, and Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie go in the direction I believe they’re going to go in then I hope I am wrong about this teams ability to rally around Carson Wentz.
If they go with Wentz (again most likely) then the team needs to start having his back the same way that they have had Nick Foles back. Players such as TE Zach Ertz, WR1 Alshon Jeffery, and C Jason Kelce all may say the right things about when asked how they felt about Carson Wentz going down with an injury with three games left to go but come on they were also extremely excited to play with Foles again. I do not blame them. Foles won out in the regular season and took the Eagles on a playoff run…again with big victories over elite teams. We’ve seen QB Carson Wentz have success in the NFL. Now if The Philadelphia Eagles are to make the playoffs for a third straight year the players around Carson Wentz need to be excited to step onto the field with him. It wouldn’t hurt if DE Chris Long builds a shrine for Carson Wentz as he did for Nick Foles earlier this season.
God, I hope that my instincts are wrong and that Wentz is the right choice.
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