Eagles Extend Wentz: Everybody Wins
Thursday evening the Eagles announced they had inked their franchise QB to an enormous 4-year, $128 million dollar contract extension that will keep Carson Wentz in midnight green through the 2024 season. Wentz still had 2 years remaining on his current deal, so the total contract is now 6 years, $154 million and with escalators can get up to $170 million. Here comes the part where I try to explain how this is a bargain for the birds.
NFL quarterbacks are getting paid. Just this year, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Ben Roethlisberger all signed extensions with their respective teams. Wilson’s contract averages $35 million per year. Big Ben’s is for $34 million, and A-Rodg is getting a puny $33.5 mil. Wentz’ deal (not surprisingly) is structured differently than theirs. Howie “Cap Wizard” Roseman is an absolute magician when it comes to doing right by both the player and the team. #11’s deal has almost $108 million guaranteed with $66 million due at signing, which gives the team flexibility against the cap down the road.
The Eagles getting this deal done when they did is good for them in a number of ways. Quarterback is the most important position in all of team sports, and they are paid as such. The contracts are only going to get larger. The last 5 QB contracts have all set records in either guaranteed money or total money over the length of the pact. By beating the Rams (with Jared Goff, the player picked #1 before Wentz went to the Birds at #2) and the Cowboys (with Rayne Dakota Prescott) to the punch, they save themselves money while possibly making rivals pay more for their QBs. I personally can not wait for the day that Jerry Jones gives Prescott a deal that is worth more than Wentz’.
The only retraction to this deal is health. Wentz has not finished either of the last 2 seasons, and he missed almost all of the preseason his rookie year with broken ribs. I’m of the belief that his “injury prone” status is overblown. He tore his ACL and MCL on a freak play diving into the end zone late in a season that would have most assuredly ended in him winning the MVP award. (Here are all 33 of his TD passes from that season. He stayed in the game and threw a touchdown pass with that torn ACL/MCL. In case you forgot.) He missed training camp last year while he was doing rehab on his knee like a maniac. His competitive nature got the better of him and he returned in 9 months from an injury that most agree takes at least 12 months to completely heal properly. Your body is all connected. I believe that the back injury that ended his 2018 campaign was related to the knee. As with any player, health is key. At OTA’s this past week, Wentz was no longer wearing a brace on his surgically-repaired left knee. Carson being healthy and confident is what this team needs to do great things.
This off-season has been entirely geared towards Carson Wentz. They let BD Nick Foles walk in free agency. They traded for and then drafted a running back to try and bring a jolt to the running game. They drafted an offensive lineman and resigned guys to sure up his protection. Now they have made sure that he knows they are committed to him for the long term. Carson will look to reward their faith in him with wins.
Ben Longenecker / Contributor / @LongeneckerBen
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