The Philadelphia Eagles may have used a lot of draft picks to get Carson Wentz at the second overall pick, but they’re in no rush to start him or even play him next season, at least not early on.
With a new head coach (Doug Pederson), the Eagles are off in a new direction after three, mostly disappointing seasons under Chip Kelly. Re-signing Sam Bradford on a two-year deal followed by signing Chase Daniel from the Kansas City Chiefs didn’t prepare anyone for the Eagles using their first pick in the 2016 draft on another quarterback.
But the Eagles have loved Wentz, who played his college football for North Dakota State in the FCS, for a while, and always wanted to land him. However, they fully expected him to have a learning curve that’s going to be hard to handle in a few months, but they didn’t plan on making this season about rebuilding. The Eagles invested heavily in free agents and re-signings, making sure that planning for the future doesn’t come at the expense of winning now.
Bradford wasn’t happy, but he’s going to play, and do his best: In the NFL, there’s no use in “taking a dive” just to make a point, because the way out of the league is a short one, even for quarterbacks, when they don’t play well. Bradford might not be elite, but he’s a good quarterback, and Daniel might be the best backup in the NFL, who has been waiting for his chance to start for quite some time.
Here’s what Pederson had to say about Wentz, confirming it’s going to be a while before he takes the field in an NFL game, if things go as planned: Typically, the third quarterback is down. It’s hard right now to look down the road, but if we had to play this week, Carson would be down. He’d be the third quarterback. He’d be deactivated. That’s probably the direction we’re heading, I would think is going that route.