Carson Wentz seems to have emerged from whatever dark cloud he was playing under for the first few weeks of the season, but the Eagles are still 1-4-1 and clawing for any sense of positive momentum.
And yet it sounds like the quarterback's reputation survived those ugly games, and is back on the rise.
That's according to NFL insider Tyler Dunne, who spoke with one NFL exec about Wentz and heard some pretty dang high praise after the Eagles' Week 6 loss to the Ravens:
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Saying a quarterback who barely completed 50% of his passes, didn't reach 215 yards, and lost was the best QB in the league is... definitely something!
I'd imagine football fans would point to the Titans' Ryan Tannehill - 73% completion, 364 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, and one game-tying TD pass with four seconds left in regulation - or the Falcons' Matt Ryan - 75% completion, 371 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions in a win - as guys who had better showings in Week 6.
But those guys got their wins against teams with a combined 2-10 record and two of the worst defenses in the league, while Wentz was going up against possibly the league's best defense with a slap-dash offensive unit.
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If you only watched Wentz's start against Baltimore, you'd have a hard time agreeing with the exec's evaluation. The offense was embarrassing; through the first 20 minutes of the game, Wentz was 2 for 7 for three yards.
But if you picked the game up after those 20 minutes, during the Jalen Hurts drive, you saw Wentz go 19 for 33 for 210 yards and two touchdowns, all the while improvising, making gutsy throws, and leading an improbable comeback.
So it's definitely a hot take... but it's not totally insane.
At the very least, we're seeing serious improvement from Wentz. Look at the difference between his first three games and his last three games:
First 3: 59.8% completion, 5.58 Y/A, 2.2% TD rate, 4.5% INT rate
Last 3: 57.2% completion, 6.45 Y/A, 4.8% TD rate, 2.9% INT rate
Okay, it's not MVP stuff, but it's much better. For reference, Wentz was averaging 6.7 yards per attempt and had a 4.4% TD rate in 2019, a season that had Eagles fans feeling very good about his future.
If Wentz can continue improving, maybe the Eagles can claw out a few wins in a row and start building towards something - anything - better than these first six games.
The Eagles face the Giants on Thursday night.