Carson Wentz Is Quietly Having a Very Impressive Season
A quarter of the NFL season has come and gone, and the Philadelphia Eagles sit firmly at .500 with a 2-2 record, which is underwhelming but somewhat understandable, given the circumstances.
Things could certainly be a lot worse, though, if it weren’t for the presence of star QB Carson Wentz at the helm.
Wentz’s stats don’t jump off the page on their own. 963-9-2 on 60.7 completion percentage, 6.6 yards per attempt and a 95.3 passer rating aren’t exactly incredible numbers (especially in a league where Patrick Mahomes is playing) but, if we take a closer look, it’s not difficult to see why Pro Football Focus has him ranked as the #1 QB in the league through 4 weeks.
Wentz has an Expected Completion Percentage of 64.7. That number, when compared to his actual completion percentage, places him at seventh in the league with -4, which means he’s completing 4 percent fewer passes than he should. Now, given the current state of the Eagles’ receiving corps that shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it’s still a nice way to measure just how well Wentz has played and how much injuries have hurt the team and the production from the QB position over the first month of the season.
He has also gotten rid of the ball quicker, as his 2.58s snap-to-throw (10th in the league) indicates. For comparison, his previous best mark was 2.65s in his rookie year. Snap-to-throw times are not always a good thing, but when coupled with his efficiency and turnover ratio it’s a great sign. This means he’s processing coverages and going through reads quicker, while also maintaining composure to avoid making mistakes.
Mistakes are a key part of the evaluation of Wentz’s play in 2019. He was never one to throw a lot of wild, highly interceptable passes, but even that part of his game has been cleaner. Aside from the first half against the Falcons – which was terrible for the entire team, and had Carson playing hurt for most of it – he has not turned the ball over a single time. Even his fumbling issues seem to have gone away, as he has not yet lost a football this season.
An overall analysis of regular stats, next-gen stats, and the eye test suggests we are witnessing a major evolution in his game.
Mr. Wentz has so far proved that the preseason hype surrounding him was real and that he’s bound to take the next step in his career.
Such improvement, coming from the man who would have easily walked away with an MVP trophy in 2017 if healthy, is an amazing sign for the Eagles and very, very scary for the rest of the league.
Photo: Jeffrey Phelps/AP Photo
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Categorized:Eagles