Carson Wentz’s historically bad 2020 season puts the Eagles in an impossible bind

Carson Wentz’s regression is one for the ages, and the Eagles have no choice but to ride it out.

We at Touchdown Wire are not exactly breaking news when we tell you that Carson Wentz is having a season for the ages — and not at all in a good way. On Monday night in a 23-17 loss to the Seahawks, Wentz completed 25 of 45 passes for 215 yards, one touchdown, one interception, six sacks, and one pass over 20 air yards completed in six attempts. That was the 33-yard Hail Mary to tight end Richard Rodgers with 12 seconds left in the game — a play that made a lot of gamblers very unhappy, and saved Wentz from further statistical humiliation.

Had Wentz not completed this late-game arm punt, he would have finished his day with 24 of 45 completions for 182 yards and no touchdowns. That, folks, would have given Wentz a yards per attempt total of 4.0. Even with the Hail Mary, we’re talking about a YPA of 4.8. That’s exactly two yards per attempt lower than his career total of 6.8, and it’s just one indication of exactly how severe Wentz’s 2020 decline has been.

Want more? Well, there’s a lot more.

Wentz’s decline isn’t just bad — it’s historically bad, and the other quarterbacks throughout NFL history who have experienced similar declines in their careers were almost always those who hung on a bit too long and felt the effects in a negative way.

Yeah, not good. Per NFL Research, Wentz’s drop in passer rating from 98.3 in 2017-2019 to 73.4 this season makes him the sixth quarterback to have a plummet of more than 24 points in one season. Wentz is the only quarterback under 30 to have this happen to him, and four of the other five quarterbacks on the list (Y.A. Tittle in 1964, Joe Theismann in 1985, Brett Favre in 2010, and Peyton Manning in 2015) retired after those seasons. The only other quarterback on the list is Mark Rypien in 1993. That was Rypien’s last season in Washington — he never threw more than 217 passes in a season after that, though he played for the Browns, Eagles, and Rams from 1994 through 1997, and for the Colts in a 2001 return to the game after retiring from 1998 through 2000.

Not that Wentz is retiring; he’s 27 years old and in the second year of a four-year, $128 million contract extension that has him in the books for $18,656,536 in salary cap for 2020, $34,673,536 in 2021, and $31,274,536 in 2022. If the Eagles wanted to cut bait, it would be massively impractical to do so before 2022. Per OverTheCap.com, the dead cap in 2020 would be $77,877,144, and $59,220,608 in 2021. It’s not until 2022 that a release would be fiscally reasonable; then, the dead cap is just $24,547,072, with a cap savings of $6,727,464.

So, if you’re wondering why head coach Doug Pederson is sticking with Wentz despite his historically bad regression, the simple reason is this: The Eagles can’t really afford to do anything else.