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Carson Wentz seemed to have it all on that warm December day in Los Angeles back in 2017. He had thrown four TD passes against a good Rams team and appeared to have ran for another before the TD that changed his career was called back due to a holding call.
Wentz had the Eagles staring down a 12-2 record with a win over the Rams and the second-year QB was growing used to having his name mentioned in the MVP discussion.
But that MVP award didn’t happen, of course, as Wentz didn’t take another snap that year after scoring the TD that didn’t count. Instead, he limped out of the Coliseum with a torn ACL and later watched Nick Foles lead the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win in franchise history.
The path of Wentz’s career has been forever changed since that day in LA. He was just 17-21-1 as a starter over the past three seasons and lost his starting job last year to Jalen Hurts, who looked pretty good in relief.
Wentz learned a tough lesson during that time- things can change really quickly for a professional athlete and especially for a QB in the NFL. One day you’re a MVP candidate, the next you’re struggling to do anything right and losing your way more and more each day.
That change continued Thursday when the Eagles finally put an end to Wentz’s time in Philadelphia and traded him to the Indianapolis Colts for a couple of non-first round draft picks.
Ouch.
Wentz, though, now gets a fresh start with a familiar face – Colts head coach Frank Reich, who was his offensive coordinator for the first two years of his career. How they mesh could be the difference between Wentz being a solid QB in the league again or Wentz not being in the league at all.
My friend Charles McDonald graded the trade on Thursday and correctly noted that Wentz could be permanently broken and that the Eagles will still not be good in 2021.
My other pal Chris Korman looked at what’s next for the Eagles, who do have the No. 6 pick in the draft and could possibly look at a QB in that spot.
So yeah, times have changed for Wentz since he dove into that end zone in LA and it’s something we see far too often in pro sports.
But he does have a chance to turn it all around, which is what makes sports so great.
Quick hits: Trail Blazers’ perfect Lillard tweet… C’mon, Shaq… Shoveling Watts… And more.
– The Portland Trail Blazers had a perfect tweet after Damian Lillard was not named a starter in the NBA All-Star Game.
– Shaq didn’t know Pascal Siakam’s first name and NBA fans crushed him for it.
– T.J. Watt helped J.J. Watt shovel snow and NFL fans had jokes about recruiting.
– Speaking of jokes, lots of people made the same Matt Damon joke after NASA’s incredible Mars landing.
