Brett Favre believes Eagles should have stuck with Nick Foles over Carson Wentz

Hall-of-Famer Brett Favre believes the Eagles should have gone with Nick Foles over Carson Wentz. Sadly, that’s not the solution.

If there’s one thing about which we can be sure when it comes to the 2020 Eagles, it’s that quarterback Carson Wentz is not playing his best football. At all. Injuries to the offensive line and his receiver corps has gutted Philly’s passing game, but still… Wentz leads the NFL in both sacks (32) and interceptions (12) this season, which speaks to a negative perpetual motion. Wentz is getting beaten in the pocket, so he’s rolling out before he should, and he’s making terribly risky throws with generally awful results. You see this with quarterbacks from time to time, no matter how great they are — they lose faith in the structure of the offense, and all of a sudden, everything goes awry.

Brett Favre, one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, had a lot to say about Wentz’s potential, and the decision to give Wentz a four-year, $128 million extension before the 2019 season while jettisoning backup Nick Foles, who led the franchise to its only Super Bowl win at the end of the 207 season.

“I think he’s very capable,” Favre said of Wentz on Wednesday morning’s episode of ESPN’s First Take. “I think we are all in agreement that he has the tools. I’m gonna err on the side of lack of consistency. Who are you throwing to, more than anything. They’ve had to mix and mingle players in and out. That being said, other quarterbacks have managed to handle that very well. So, I get the other side of the argument that you’ve got to make it work.

“I actually thought that they should have kept Nick Foles rather than Carson Wentz. Just based on production, and where they got to. You know, they won a Super Bowl with Foles, and that was a bit surprising. They’re obviously banking on [Wentz’s] upside. But how many more years do you let it linger before you stick with him, or you cut bait? That’s a question only they can answer. But I knew Doug [Pederson] — of course, we were together for a long time [Pederson was Favre’s backup in Green Bay from 1996 through 1998, and again from 2001 through 2004]. Doug’s a very simple coach — he’ll put you in the best possible opportunity to succeed, and he’s not going to complicate things. So, I know it’s not Doug. I’m going to write it off as too many injuries, right now.”

Well, here’s the thing. Foles got hurt in Jacksonville in the 2019 season, leading to the advent of Gardner Minshew, and his 2020 season with the Bears hasn’t been much better than what Wentz is putting out there. Foles has thrown seven interceptions and taken 16 sacks with just 285 passing attempts since taking over for Mitchell Trubisky, and Chicago’s offense has been ineffective for the most part no matter who the quarterback has been.

It may or may not be time to give up on Wentz, but the Eagles really aren’t in a position to do that for a long time. Per OverTheCap.com, Wentz has dead money hits of $59,220,608 in 2021, $24,547,072 in 2022, and $15,273,536 in 2023, and it isn’t until 2022 that his cap hit for being on the roster outweighs his dead money burden were he to be released.

Which is one reason why Pederson, when asked about Favre’s comments on Wednesday, stuck with his guy. Repeatedly.

It’s a lot of drama the Eagles don’t need, especially as they’re getting ready to face the Giants and their underrated, complex defense, but until Wentz is able to engineer some sort of turnaround and can stop playing as if he’s one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks (which, despite his talent, has been the case this season), the questions — and comments — aren’t going anywhere.