Philadelphia Eagles: No choice but to bench Carson Wentz moving forward

There’s no reason for the Philadelphia Eagles to turn things back over to #11.

Regardless of how you feel about the situation, the Philadelphia Eagles unleashed a giant can of worms during Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers. By benching Carson Wentz – and in turn making Jalen Hurts the starting quarterback for a handful of drives – the team has created what’s arguably the biggest QB controversy in the NFL.

And there’s no turning back.

Prior to Wentz’ impromptu benching, plenty of people had hypothesized that some “time away from the game” could actually help Wentz mentally reset, as opposed to continuously struggling each and every Sunday. Hall of Famer Kurt Warner himself even threw this idea out, as he said that sometimes the pressure of playing each weekend can be too much for guys who are in the midst of some struggles.

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Donovan McNabb was famously benched by Andy Reid at halftime during a game in 2008, a move that ultimately sparked McNabb to turn things around and perform better.

However, when it comes to the Wentz and the 2020 Philadelphia Eagles, that ship has simply sailed. There’s no reason to turn things back over to Wentz for this week’s game against the Saints, and in all reality there’s no reason to play him at all for the remainder of the regular season.

For starters, Wentz is in a massive funk, and there’s little reason to believe that this lone half sitting on the bench will magically turn things around. He has no chemistry with his receivers, his offensive line is in shambles, he has no relationship with the coaching staff, and a year’s worth of getting sacked at a league-high rate is likely taking a serious toll on his body. The absolute worst case scenario would be Wentz sticking it out as the starter, just to get injured playing on a team destined for a top ten draft pick.

Additionally, the calls for Jalen Hurts (at both a national and local level) will reach a deafening level of loudness if Wentz returns to the starting lineup. While Hurts had his own respective struggles upon coming in against GB, he undoubtedly sparked some life into the offense, and the media isn’t going to let that go anytime soon.

With four games left to go in the season, the Eagles are realistically playing for draft position. The QB position aside for a second, this team is collectively bad pretty much across the board, and needs a full-on reset in the offseason. Whether that reset will be spearheaded by Wentz or Hurts heading into 2021, only time will ultimately tell.

Starting Hurts for the remainder of the season is less about him being some generational talent who can lead Philly to the postseason (I’m still not sure how good he is quite yet), it’s simply about removing #11 from the equation for the meantime. Like mentioned previously, the Eagles opened up this can of worms the second they yanked Wentz on Sunday, now it’s time to double-down on that decision.