Eagles reportedly expected to trade Carson Wentz in ‘coming days’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles are expected to trade Carson Wentz in “the coming days,” according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen.
Wentz, 28, has been with the Eagles since they drafted him No. 2 overall back in 2016, but it appears he’s in his last few days with the franchise.
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As Schefter said, the next questions are really about Wentz’s landing spot and the compensation the Eagles will get back in the deal.
There are plenty of teams that need a quarterback this offseason. But the two teams to come up most often late this week were the Colts and Bears, for obvious reasons.
The Colts need a quarterback after the retirement of Philip Rivers. In Indy, Wentz would be reunited with Frank Reich and Press Taylor.
The Bears are again in need of a quarterback after it has become obvious that neither Mitchell Trubisky nor Nick Foles are the answer. In Chicago, Wentz would reunite with former QBs coach John DeFilippo.
It’s also very possible that a third team is waiting in the shadows, preparing to top offers to land the quarterback.
For the Eagles, the best-case scenario is that multiple teams are interested in Wentz and it creates a bidding war. It might seem laughable that they are starting off by wanting a first-round pick and more but this is a supply-and-demand business. If teams look at Wentz and think they can get him back to being the Pro Bowler that he was in 2017, then he’s well-worth a first-round pick.
According to ESPN, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is looking for a “Matthew Stafford package” for Wentz. As a reminder, the Lions got two first-rounders, a third-rounder and Jared Goff in return for Stafford. It seems unlikely the price for Wentz will reach that level, but as long as more than one team is interested, getting a first-rounder in this deal is clearly not out of the question.
While there will be plenty of QB movement this offseason, there are fewer quarterbacks than landing spots, which makes Wentz a hot commodity, even after a season in which we saw him regress terribly.
The report also says the Eagles would be happy to bring Wentz back to Philadelphia but that really seems like a bargaining tactic. After all, the toothpaste is already out of the tube here. It’s obvious the relationship between Wentz and the organization is strained and I don’t know how they could come back from this point.
After the Eagles trade Wentz, they will be left with a dead cap figure of $33.8 million in 2021, which will be an NFL record, surpassing the dead money the Rams will have to eat from trading Goff ($22.2 million). But the Eagles will end up saving just under $1 million in cap space in 2021.
We all knew the relationship between Wentz and Doug Pederson had clearly deteriorated and many thought the hiring of Nick Sirianni signaled that Wentz had won some sort of power struggle. But that’s clearly not the case as the Eagles prepare for life after Wentz.
And unless the Eagles use their No. 6 pick (or trade up) to draft a quarterback, this likely means Jalen Hurts is in line to be the starter in 2021.
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