Carson Wentz is one of the most heavily criticized players in recent Eagles history.
His crime?
Tearing up his knee late on a touchdown drive in a near-MVP season while putting the Eagles in position for home-field advantage in a Super Bowl run and then suffering a broken bone in his back when he played while his knee was still healing.
What a jerk.
This is life in the NFL, and when you were the No. 2 pick in the draft and you’re making $25 million per year and you not only haven’t taken a snap yet in the postseason but haven’t finished either of the last two seasons, the scrutiny is going to be intense.
Might not be fair. But it’s there. And for a kid who grew up in rural North Dakota, more than 400 miles from the nearest NFL city, it hasn't always been easy to take.
Wentz concedes now that the criticism got to him in the past, and he said he made up his mind this offseason to just ignore it. To let it go and just go play football.
NFL
Playing in this city you’re going to have critics,” Zach Ertz said. “Right or wrong, everyone has an opinion, it’s part of it all. Oftentimes young guys, it’s extremely difficult to come in here in an age of social media. It was difficult for me when I was young. But as you get older, as you’re here longer, you kind of just come to grips with the fact that people are just passionate about this team and winning football games.
When he's been on the field, Wentz has been extraordinary in his first 40 NFL starts.
He's one of only two quarterbacks in NFL history to throw at least 70 touchdowns and fewer than 30 interceptions in his first three years.
His 64 percent completion percentage is third-highest ever by a quarterback after three seasons, and his interception ratio, one every 52 attempts, is also third-best.
He’s one of only four QBs ever with a passer rating over 100 twice in his first three seasons.
But because of the injuries and because of the remarkable success Nick Foles had in his place, the criticism directed at him has been sharp.
He’ll never finish a season. He can’t stay healthy. He’ll never do what Nick did. He can’t carry a team. He’s just going to get hurt again.
“Obviously, there’s stuff that’s out there,” Wentz said. “And really since I came into the league I try to avoid social media and those types of things. But I think finally … really I just kind of said, ‘Screw it, I’m not even going to look at it at all.’”
Wentz on Sunday will make his third opening-day start for the Eagles. By the time he’s done, he’ll hold every Eagles passing record in the books.
Heck, he’s already seventh in franchise history in TD passes, sixth in passing yards and fifth in wins.
And he’s 26.
But he’s a quarterback in a major metropolitan market, and that means he’s going to hear about it when he messes up. And sometimes when he doesn’t.
The criticism from anybody and everybody … that’s just kind of part of this game and for me when I started to kind of hear those voices a little bit that was something that when I got hurt last year I finally just kind of had to let it all go and then realize that I can’t control what people think, what they say, what they write,” Wentz said. “It doesn’t really matter to me. I realize I play this game for a bigger purpose. So it was kind of all just freeing this offseason going through everything and just remembering again that there’s a bigger purpose.
This is an intense media market with a rabid fan base and one NFL title in the last half century.
It’s not an easy place to play. But as we all saw two years ago, when you win and win big, you become a folk hero.
Wentz has only finished 11 of 25 games the Eagles have played since December 2017, and it hasn’t been easy for him to watch from the bench.
The criticism — some of it anonymously from at least one teammate, allegedly — only made it worse.
I think he’s handled it great,” Ertz said. “From the outside it doesn’t seem like it impacts him, it’s not like he’s getting shorter with teammates or going into a shell even though he’s had to deal with all this stuff. … Quarterbacks are often judged, right or wrong, based on the team’s success and it doesn’t matter if he goes out there and throws for 400 yards. Statistically, last year was one of the best seasons anybody’s ever had around here, but people acted like he was the worst quarterback in the NFL. That’s the way people were perceiving it because we just weren’t winning games. I think 10 years ago the biggest adjustment (coming into the NFL) was probably the speed of the game, meetings and a lot of other factors. Now it’s dealing with social media and the constant stuff that's out there.
Ertz and Wentz are extremely close, and a lot of what Wentz has been going through Ertz endured early in his career.
Now, Ertz is a Super Bowl hero, a two-time Pro Bowler and a record-setting pass receiver.
And enjoying the kind of popularity Wentz will once he proves he can carry a team deep into the postseason.
It never really seemed like on the outside it was hurting him too much,” Ertz said. “He was trying to become a better player. Even when that big (PhillyVoice) story came out last year, it was like, ‘Even if this is 1 percent true how can I become 1 percent better as a teammate?’ He’s always going to be much harder on himself than anybody else is.
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