With Andrew Luck set to retire from the NFL at the way-too-young age of 29, the Philadelphia Eagles should reunite Nate Sudfeld with Frank Reich via trade.
The Philadelphia Eagles have a quarterback logjam.
Going into the summer, things looked about as cut and dry as one could find in the NFL: Carson Wentz at QB1, Nate Sudfeld at QB2, and 2019 fifth-round pick Clayton Thorson rounding out the crew at QB.
Was the situation ideal? Hardly, as many fans had hoped the team would add an over-30 veteran to back up the oft-injured Wentz, but after excelling with a backup quarterback in a way that very few other NFL teams have been able to over the last two seasons – in large part due to the hero known affectionately as ‘Saint’ Nick Foles – it was hard to question Doug Pederson‘s judgement on the matter.
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And then Sudfeld suffered a broken bone in his left arm in the Birds’ preseason debut against the Tennessee Titans, and suddenly everything changed.
Fast forward one week into the future and disaster struck again, as the team’s new potential backup, Cody Kessler, suffered his own game-ending injury that left Philly with just Thorson to close out the final three and change quarters of the team’s Week 2 bout against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He looked surprisingly good; day and night really after his historically bad Week 1 appearance.
Thorson looked so good that many wondered how the Eagles would be able to keep the 23-year-old in team control after Howie Roseman went out and added the ideal backup quarterback for a player like Wentz: 19-year-vet Josh McCown.
Fortunately, a situation out of the Eagles control just arose that could fix the team’s logjam at quarterback: The surprise retirement of Andrew Luck.
In a near-unprecedented move, Luck, once considered a generational talent worth sucking for, informed the Indianapolis Colts that he is planning on hanging up his cleats once and for all and moving on from the game of football at 29-years-old.
Wow.
While this retirement, if it holds, could create one the biggest ‘What if…’ stories of the modern era of football, it also leaves the Colts with a big ‘ole question mark at quarterback both in the short and long-term.
As things presently stand, the Colts have three quarterbacks on their roster: 2016 third-round pick Jacoby Brissett, troubled 2017 Mr. Irrelevant Chad Kelly, and Temple fan favorite Phillip Walker.
Of those players, only Brissett has any real experience running a team, and he’s yet to prove he can helm a playoff-caliber team as a starter – and over the last four seasons, he’s had a number of chances and a 9-14 record to show for them.
The Colts were so neutral on Brissett that they actually targeted Sudfeld, a player Frank Reich helped to mentor over his tenure as the Eagles’ OC, to compete for the team’s backup quarterback position going into 2019.
After Luck’s decision, I doubt that interest in the 25-year-old Indiana prospect has wavered.
With extensive experience running a Reich-adjacent system, a fairly low cap number (not that that affects the Colts all too much), and most important of all, a willingness to play football in 2019, Sudfeld looks like an ideal late-summer trade target who can learn Indianapolis’ scheme while Brissett holds the starting spot, and potentially compete for a starting spot next summer – or later this season.
It’s not like Sudfeld is a lock to come back next season either, as he’s only signed through the end of the season on a one-year, second-round tender and may seek an opportunity to start elsewhere during this the prime of his career.
Thorson, on the other hand, is just starting his rookie season and is under contract through 2022.
That is valuable.
With Carson Wentz, Josh McCown, and Clayton Thorson in place, keeping Nate Sudfeld is a luxury that the Philadelphia Eagles just don’t need. If Howie Roseman can ship the 25-year-old signal-caller back to his college home for a future draft pick, or an immediate contributor like Anthony Walker, Nate Hairston, and/or Evan Boehm, it could be a win-win for all parties involved.