PHILADELPHIA _ Carson Wentz turned 27 on this cold and rainy Monday.
As he petted his dog by his fireplace and reflected on the 12 months that passed, let's hope he regarded his fourth NFL season as his best. It was.
Not just because the Eagles reached the playoffs with a four-game winning streak behind Wentz's arm and inspired play from a herd of strays. He might have made a silk purse from these sows' ears, but Wentz did not turn it on in Game 13, since that implies he never turned up for the first 12 games. It is a false narrative, and it ignores basic facts.
In fact, Wentz played superbly for almost all of 2019. He slumped in Games 10 and 11. He pressed against Tom Brady and Russell Wilson. He then played well in the first half of Game 12 at Miami, but hibernated until the second half of Game 13, against the Giants. That's OK. Everybody presses. Everybody slumps. That's sports.
Wentz might have had 12 bad quarters out of 64, but on the whole, his 2019 has been superb. Better than his 2017, when he'd have won the MVP if he didn't blow out his knee in Game 13. Better than 2018, when his passer rating, at 102.2, was actually slightly better than his rating in 2017.
He finished this season with a 93.1 rating, but set the franchise record with 4,039 passing yards _ an incredible feat considering he finished Game 16 without 11 of his top 12 pass catchers: his top five receivers, his top five running backs, and his No. 1 target, tight end Zach Ertz. In the last 18 minutes of the season, Wentz had backup tight end Dallas Goedert, a converted college quarterback named Greg Ward, a tight end playing out of position named Josh Perkins, and a ferocious, 5-foot-6 Gimli delightfully named Boston Scott. He scored 24 points in those 18 minutes.
After four seasons and 56 games, Wentz, the No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft, is worth every penny of the 4-year, $128 million contract extension he signed in June.
Wentz has made good decisions and delivered accurate throws all season. He protected himself in the pocket by taking sacks and throwing the ball away, and he was judicious when he escaped the pocket _ diving, sliding, running out of bounds. He's healthy for the Seahawks' visit because of it.
