Carson Wentz Banner Removed From Lincoln Financial Field
With training camp rapidly approaching, workers at Lincoln Financial Field got to business Monday, removing the giant Carson Wentz banner from the side of the Eagles' home.
Once the face of the franchise, an acrimonious divorce finally came to a close with Wentz being traded to Indianapolis back in February.
The ending was a far cry from the good times when Philadelphia drafted Wentz No. 2 overall in the 2016 draft. By his sophomore season, Wentz seemed to be en route to MVP honors before tearing his ACL and LCL in a victory over the Los Angeles Rams in December.
The Eagles were 12-2 after that game and ultimately won Super Bowl LII behind stellar play from backup Nick Foles.
From there, the injuries continued to pile up for Wentz and the quarterback seemed to have trouble navigating the fans' love for Foles, who tagged in to give them what they wanted since 1960.
Ultimately, Foles was shipped to Jacksonville and Wentz settled into above-average play in 2018 and 2019 before a troubling regression in 2020 after the Eagles selected Jalen Hurts at No. 53 overall in the draft earlier that year.
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Hurts was drafted to be a cost-effective backup, something ex-coach Doug Pederson has confirmed on multiple occasions. Wentz saw something different and felt slighted by the decision, which was just 10 months after Jeffrey Lurie gave Wentz a franchise-record $128 million extension.
Wentz regressed so badly in 2020 that Lurie was willing to destroy the precedent of dead money in the NFL to deal with his former QB1, exploding the record number from $22.2M to $33.8M.
Wentz is set to be the starter for the Colts under former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich this season while Hurts is being given the opportunity to pilot the Eagles during what Lurie has termed a transition year, something tied to the fact that 16.34 percent of Philadelphia's salary cap is being spent on Wentz.
The question now is: who replaces Wentz?
There are options.
Brian Dawkins is one of the former greats of the organization while Jason Kelce in a Mummers costume giving his speech at the Eagles Super Bowl Championship parade on the steps of the Art Museum in February would also be a good replacement.
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
