New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles: Carson Wentz setting very good foundation

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:59 a.m. ET

Fansided, Sayre Bedinger/FanSided via NFL Mocks

The Philadelphia Eagles traded up to get Carson Wentz in the 2016 NFL Draft, and despite the ups and downs of a rookie season, he’s had a solid year…

The 2016 season hasn’t gone perfectly for the Philadelphia Eagles and rookie quarterback Carson Wentz. In fact, both in terms of their record as a team and Wentz’s individual statistics, it’s been a pretty below-average year by NFL standards.

The Eagles are 6-9 following a win over the New York Giants on Thursday night, and Wentz is sitting on a quarterback rating under 80 with 14 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, and 14 fumbles this season.

Wentz is fourth in the NFL this season with 564 pass attempts, and he completed 62.4 percent of those passes, resulting in him breaking the Eagles’ single-season completions record.

That’s a pretty crazy stat, but it makes sense considering the amount of passes Wentz has thrown.

Judging by his on-field performance, it’s easy to be a bit too impatient and say that Wentz was overrated coming out, or that he wasn’t worth the price the Eagles paid to get him. I would argue that, and say that Wentz has shown out incredibly well in his first NFL season, adapting to this level of football coming from North Dakota State.

I think Wentz has given the Eagles a great look at what he can be, and set a solid foundation for his NFL future.

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It certainly wasn’t a Pro Bowl performance on Thursday night, but Wentz and the Eagles showed resilience and a lot of fight against the New York Giants, essentially killing the Giants’ already slim hopes of winning the NFC East. It was about as close to a playoff game as the Eagles were getting this season, and they managed to find a way to win.

Wentz wasn’t perfect, which has been the story of the season, but with the backing of a defense that is stronger than most people acknowledge, he put together a good enough performance to give the Eagles a big lead before the end of the second quarter, and they were able to hold on.

There are so many positive qualities you see in Wentz. His adjustment to the NFL game and ability to pick up an NFL offense so quickly have impressed, as well as his desire to work and be better. He made Sam Bradford an asset via trade. He shattered the expectation that he would ride the bench in the first year by winning the starting job and giving this organization confidence he would be the guy moving forward.

He’ll continue to learn from his mistakes, and for his rookie season, I’ve been impressed with the way Wentz has performed and I’m excited for his future in this league.