There Is No Good Way The Eagles Quarterback Debacle Ends

Let me start off by saying Eagles fans should still be enjoying the victory over the Saints. It’s been a long time since the Eagles have been enjoyable to watch. The fans should relish this for as long as humanly possible.

 

However, as is tradition in Philadelphia sports, that isn’t very long for Philly fans.

 

An impending doom lies ahead for the Eagles organization. The worst part about said doom? It’s inevitable. No matter how this situation shakes out, the end result will be something bad. It’s just a matter of how bad it is. 

 

How The Eagles Got Here

 

Don’t get it twisted. I don’t want to bring up an old issue that this fan base has complained about at nauseam. Yet, with as bad as Howie Roseman has been exposed already this season, I feel as though it’s necessary to this story to bring up the selection of Jalen Hurts again.

 

If Howie Roseman drafted Hurts in the second round with the intention of making him a starter, he is a moron. Jalen Hurts’ rookie contract coincides with Carson Wentz’s mega contract extension. If Wentz was still on his rookie deal, then yeah it would make sense to take a flyer on a talented quarterback that you can turn to if all else fails with Carson.

 

However, if the organization’s plan all along was to bring Hurts in and challenge Wentz for the starting job, then why did they sign Wentz to a contract that is quite literally impossible to financially get out of? If Wentz is not on the roster next year or the following year, the Eagles will owe him $59 million at the very least.

 

Clearly that doesn’t make sense. There is no way that the Eagles are that dumb, right? Right?

 

Let’s give the organization the benefit of the doubt, and say they didn’t draft Hurts with the intention of making him the starter all along. Well if that’s the case, then Howie Roseman spent a second round pick on a quarterback with the sole intention of Hurts being an insurance policy. In this case, Roseman is still a moron.

 

This team had, and still has, so many holes on both sides of the ball. Yet, Roseman decided to use an extremely valuable draft pick on a position that could have been filled by any number of veteran options on the free agency market. No team has ever used a first or second round pick on a quarterback with the intention of not having him be a big part of the team’s future at some point.

 

Don’t give me the “Wentz is injury prone” argument. If the Eagles were truly using Wentz’s injury history as the main motivator in their back-up quarterback search, wouldn’t they want a veteran who has proven he can play quarterback in this league?

 

Nearly eight months later, the pick still doesn’t make sense, even though Hurts is the starting quarterback now. Even after Hurts played really well on Sunday. Even after giving this offense, nay, this team some much needed life. The pick still doesn’t make sense, and I don’t think it ever will.

 

The Mess

 

Why do I think the pick will never make sense, you ask? To put it simply, there is no good resolution to this now major problem the Eagles have created. Sure, you could make the argument that having two solid options at quarterback is a good issue to have. But I tend to believe the saying, “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none,” holds more water.

 

Let’s run through the most likely hypothetical scenarios for how the season finishes, and where the Eagles would go from there.

 

Scenario One

 

Jalen Hurts continues to play well, similar to how he has the previous two weeks. Maybe he even leads the Eagles on a miraculous run to the playoffs. Now you have no choice for 2021: Jalen Hurts has to be your starting quarterback. There would be no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He will have more than earned the right to go into the season as the starter, even with such a small sample size.

 

So in this scenario, what the hell do you do with Wentz? The shortest answer: you’re screwed. My prediction is that the Eagles would be stuck with Wentz. His colossal contract would make it nearly impossible to trade him. First of all, not a lot of teams even have the cap space for Wentz’s contract. Even if someone did, no team in their right mind would be willing to pay that much for a quarterback who led the league in turnovers before he got benched in favor of a rookie.

 

Even if the Eagles were somehow able to find a suitor for Wentz who even has the cap space, the stipulations in his contract would still leave the Birds in a poor place financially. Wentz’s contract states that the Eagles would be down $53 million in dead cap over the next two years for trading him. Furthermore, the Eagles can’t even release him. The Eagles would owe Carson more than $59 million in dead money, a ridiculous amount for a player to not be on your roster.

 

More than likely, the Eagles would be in the mortifyingly embarrassing position of having their back-up quarterback be the highest paid man on the roster.

 

Scenario Two

 

Jalen Hurts is strictly average in the remaining games he plays in. He isn’t bad, but he doesn’t do well enough to convince anyone that he should be the unquestioned starter heading into 2021. This leads to a spirited quarterback battle throughout the offseason, training camp, and into the preseason.

 

As a Philadelphia sports fan of 22 years who has known nothing but endless toxicity on sports radio and social media, this has to be the most likely scenario. It’s too Philly.

 

No matter who wins the job, both guys are going to have their confidence shaken. Whoever wins the battle will be looking over their shoulder all season, waiting to be benched at even the slightest mistake. Whoever loses the battle could potentially have their confidence destroyed to the point where they are no longer salvageable in Philadelphia. The loser will likely want out of Philly.

 

Of course, the drama and hysteria around the situation would only fuel the fire. The Eagles offseason will be a circus, and the fan base will become more divided than they were in the Foles vs. Wentz era.

 

Scenario Three

 

Jalen Hurts plays so poorly the remainder of the season that Carson Wentz will either be the starter by seasons end or he will be the undoubted starter heading into 2021.

 

In this scenario, who’s to say that Wentz’s confidence will be able to recover at all? What if he continues to struggle in 2021 and beyond like he did in 2020? Especially with the way Doug Pederson has called plays with Wentz over the past three years, there’s no guarantee that Wentz is even a serviceable option.

 

 

Would the Eagles find themselves looking for a new franchise savior in a future draft? If this is the case, the Eagles will essentially be starting over for the second time in less than a decade. There is hardly ever a sure thing at quarterback coming out of the draft. There is no guarantee that Eagles wouldn’t end up in endless solitude like the Browns were for years on end.

 

Furthermore, what do the Eagles do with Jalen Hurts? They could keep him as the back-up, and hope that he develops into a solid back-up option. However, Hurts doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would be okay with accepting a role as a backup. I would imagine he would ask to be traded.

 

At that point, what would Hurts’ value even be? I’ll predict that it would be far lower than the value the Eagles bought him at in the second round last April.

 

My Prediction

 

Scenario two is so Philly it hurts, that seems like the most likely endgame to me. Scenario one is a close second, and is a completely feasible situation given how well Hurts has played so far. Scenario three is a distant third place. It’s just too boring of a situation, and quite frankly doesn’t have enough drama for this city.

 

By Matt Szczypiorski | December 16, 2020
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