Grading the Carson Wentz trade between the Colts and the Eagles

Carson Wentz was shipped off to the Colts for two picks. Who won the deal?

The Colts finally have their quarterback of the future, maybe. Hopefully.

ESPN reported on Thursday morning that Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was being traded to the Colts for a 2021 third-round pick and a conditional 2022 second-round pick. That 2022 pick can be bumped up to a first-round pick if Wentz plays 75% of the snaps in the upcoming season.

This is a big move in the sense that a starting quarterback that was once in the MVP hunt is on his way out the door, but this is a big risk for the Colts.

Let’s dish out some infallible grades for this here trade.

Colts: B-

Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

One thing needs to be made clear about getting Wentz reunited with Frank Reich: there’s a very real chance that Wentz is permanently broken. He flat out had one of the worst seasons in recent memory last year.

Wentz ranked last in adjusted net yards per attempt (3.98), last in Sports Info Solutions’ Points Earned stat (-29.8), ranked second to last in expected points added per play (-0.054) according to Ben Baldwin of The Athletic, and tied for the league lead in interceptions (15).

It wasn’t just that he statistically performed at a historically low level, he also just looked broken on the field. The clip of his interceptions from last year shows a quarterback that had no faith in what was happening around him while also being a plain old bad quarterback.

So yeah, Wentz is coming off an all-time bad season. However, the Colts really didn’t have too many options out there this year. Dak Prescott is likely going to end up back with the Cowboys. The Texans have some control over  Deshaun Watson and there’s no way they would trade him to a division rival.

Unless they were going to package a haul of picks and trade them to Miami or Atlanta for a quarterback at the top of the draft, this was really their only option. (Unless they wanted to stray from conventional wisdom and sign Jameis Winston).

If Wentz hits for the Colts, which is a big if coming off his last season, they won’t mind paying the increased compensation for him. Quarterbacks are hard to find and Wentz is only 28. He could turn this around.

The worry is that the Colts are getting stuck with a quarterback that might not be good enough to get them over the hump, but that’s the dice roll they chose to make.

If Wentz is able to get back to form, he’ll already be on a team-friendly deal. The Colts will have to pay him between $22-25 million a year for the next two seasons, which is fairly cheap for a starting caliber quarterback. The player is risky, the money not so much. If Wentz really stinks it up this year, they can just bench him and hold onto that 2022 first round pick. It’s kind of savvy from a risk-assessment standpoint, but Wentz’s most recent performance makes that risk higher.

Which brings us to the Eagles.

Grade: C+

Woo boy, the Eagles are going to STINK this year. Unless new head coach Nick Sirianni can turn water into wine, the Eagles are nosediving into a long term rebuild.

The Eagles hold the sixth pick in this year’s draft and are currently $41 million over the cap according to Spotrac. It’s going to take a lot of work to get underneath the salary cap and the losses they’re about to incur will hurt their chances to field an ultra competitive team this season.

That was already going to be tough, but the Eagles are eating all of Wentz’s $33.8 million dead-cap figure, further cramping their roster rebuilding efforts.

However, the relationship between Wentz and the Eagles was all but dead. Wentz wanted out and it was hard to imagine the Eagles being interested in retaining his services for another year.

The biggest takeaway from the Eagles side of this? Say a prayer or send good vibes to Jalen Hurts. That young man is about to play on a skeleton roster filled with rookies in his first chance to be a legitimate starting quarterback in the NFL. The Eagles could draft a quarterback at sixth overall, but this team might struggle to put a talented offense around that player.

Regardless, it’s rebuild time for the Eagles. They don’t have as many assets as the Browns and Dolphins did when they started their rebuilds, but the Wentz trade is the start of a new era in Philadelphia.