Eagles Ex QB Carson Wentz: I'm Willing to Be 'Starter Or Backup'; NFL Responds
PHILADELPHIA - Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz is said to have drawn interest as a free agent this offseason, and appears open to humbling himself as he attempts to revitalize his career.
According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Wentz is "open to any role," and while that theoretically could include being a starting quarterback, the fact that he's not a team May 15 suggests it would have to be as a backup. Fowler adds that the former No. 2 overall pick "has received interest from teams and he might wait longer into offseason to see what develops."
Maybe ESPN deserves some blame for the phrasing of the report, as it writes of Wentz "being open to any role (including) starter.'' ... a concept that of course leads to only scorn and jokes.
Now 30 years old, Wentz tossed 11 touchdowns to nine interceptions across eight games -- seven of which were starts -- for the Washington Commanders a season ago. That followed a one-year stint as the starter for the Indianapolis Colts in 2021, which ended in disaster as the team missed the postseason altogether.
There had been some speculation that since he's dealt with a fair share of injuries and made over $128 million in seven NFL seasons, perhaps Wentz would walk away from the sport entirely after a string of failed stints to reclaim the MVP-caliber form he once demonstrated. Evidently, though, that will not be the case.
That doesn't mean, however, that Wentz will land a job where he has a realistic chance to push the starting quarterback for playing time. For the time being, the former second-team All-Pro firmly appears to just be a backup option in the NFL, not someone who teams are likely to think they can rejuvinate into a franchise quarterback.
Ironically, Wentz could draw some inspiration from Nick Foles, who was in a similar situation when he returned to the Eagles as the backup in 2017. But Foles got his chance to take over as the starting quarterback when Wentz tore his left ACL in December of that season, and eventually parlayed tremendous relief performances in 2017 and 2018 into another chance to start in the league. Foles, of course, got those opportunities somewhat at the expense of Wentz.
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