After the Eagles beat the Cards at the Linc a couple weeks ago, I ran into Donovan McNabb outside the locker room and asked him if he thought he'd have any franchise records left by the time Carson Wentz was finished.
"Are you kidding?" Donovan said with a smile. "Nope. He's going to break all of them."
What he didn't say was that Wentz might break all of them this year.
McNabb is the greatest quarterback in Eagles history. A six-time Pro Bowler. A guy who probably won't be a Hall of Famer but should at least be in the conversation.
And Wentz is now doing things McNabb never did or didn't do until several years into his outstanding career.
Seventeen touchdowns through seven games? Donovan never did that.
Three touchdown passes in three straight games? Donovan never did that.
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Two four-touchdown games in a three-week span? Donovan didn't do that until his sixth season.
A passer rating of 90 or higher in five straight games? Donovan didn't do that until his eighth season.
Nine straight games with at least one touchdown pass and one or fewer interceptions? Donovan never did that.
Wentz has thrown four TD passes of 50 yards or more in seven games this year. Donovan had four TD passes of 50 yards in his first 50 games.
Wentz is on pace for 38 touchdown passes. Donovan averaged 21 per year as an Eagle and threw more than 25 only once.
A 133 passer rating on third down? No. 5 was never even over 85 until his 10th year.
Yes, the game has changed since Donovan was a rookie 18 years ago. More of a passing league. And no, none of this is meant to disparage the achievements of McNabb, who never had the weapons Carson currently has.
But it does provide startling context into just how far Wentz has come in an extremely short period of time.
Wentz has blossomed over the past month into a flat-out superstar. His decision making is off the charts. His pocket awareness is astounding. His deep accuracy is getting better every day. His ability to use his legs to escape trouble and make plays on the move is astonishing. His knack for absorbing a huge hit and bouncing up and standing tall in the pocket and making throws down the field moments later is astounding.
This is Year 2.
We all expected Wentz to improve dramatically in Year 2, but this?
Very few quarterbacks in NFL history have been this explosive this fast.
In fact, Wentz's 104.0 passer rating through seven games is the fifth-highest in NFL history by a second-year player. And three of the four ahead of him (Dan Marino, Kurt Warner, Otto Graham) are in the Hall of Fame. The other is his backup (Nick Foles).
He's 23 games into his career.
I ran into injured Eagles special teamer and safety Chris Maragos after the game Monday night, and he put Wentz's progress into perspective, pointing out that 22 months ago he was playing in the Missouri Valley Conference and 14 months ago he was a third-stringer behind Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel.
So in a little over a year he's gone from backing up Chase Daniel to convincing McNabb he won't have any team records left.
Wentz's meteoric ascent from a third-stringer who was supposed to be inactive going into opening day last year before Teddy Bridgewater got hurt to a record-setting 24-year-old who's quarterbacking the hottest team in football at an MVP level is virtually unprecedented in NFL history.
We're still a week away from the midpoint of the season, but Wentz is on pace for over 4,200 yards, 38 touchdowns, nine interceptions and more than 400 rushing yards.
Here's a list of QBs in NFL history who've thrown for 4,200 yards, rushed for 400 yards and thrown fewer than 10 interceptions:
Yep. Nobody. Ever.
I know, I know, don't get carried away. It's only seven games, you never know what the future holds, it's all about what he does over the long haul, blah, blah, blah.
But it's impossible to not get carried away watching this kid play football. He's that good. He does things that defy belief. The way he's playing right now, I can't figure out how the Eagles will lose another game.
And the scary thing is he's going to get better.
Donovan told me two weeks ago he believes Wentz will be the greatest Eagles quarterback of all-time by the time he was done.
Wentz may hold that title a lot sooner than any of us expected.