Philadelphia Eagles: Don’t absolve Howie of blame in Wentz’ “fracturing”

Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman isn’t innocent.

The Philadelphia Eagles relationship with Carson Wentz is completely broken – that much is obvious.

According to both Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter, the former North Dakota State quarterback is set to demand a trade this offseason, with the Indianapolis Colts being the primary destination. Mortensen went as far as to label the relationship between Wentz and the Eagles as “all but fractured”, with Doug Pederson appearing to be the main culprit for Wentz’ frustrations.

While Pederson has definitely done a bad job elevating Wentz and his strengths this season, he’s not the only person who should see blame right now.

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Howie Roseman, the Philadelphia Eagles general manager/VP of football operations for the last decade, cannot be absolved of criticism when discussing how the Philadelphia Eagles ruined their former franchise QB. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Howie deserves the most blame.

For starters, it’s important to understand that Howie was the guy who initially identified Wentz as the future of this football team. He traded up twice to acquire Wentz in 2016, traded away Sam Bradford so Wentz could start during his rookie season, and ultimately made the decision to pay Wentz $128 million in a non-contract year. Howie was seemingly all in on Wentz from day one – making his souring on the QB that much more frustrating.

Howie likely never did anything explicitly to “hurt” Carson Wentz during his time with the Eagles – but he poured gasoline on the situation, repeatedly.

In 2018, Roseman failed to appropriately handle the “anonymous source” incident, instead deciding to guarantee the rest of Alshon Jeffery’s bad contract for reasons unknown. In 2019, Roseman failed to land any sort of productive WR talent, instead forcing Wentz to rely on the likes of Greg Ward Jr. down the stretch. Then, despite Wentz dragging Howie’s broken down roster to the playoffs in 2019, Roseman went on to draft Jalen Hurts (a quarterback) in the second-round of the 2020 draft, planting the seeds for further QB controversy later down the road.

Additionally, Roseman has shown a flat out negligence when it comes to providing his offense with serviceable WR talent. He passed on DK Metcalf for JJ Arcega-Whiteside in 2019, passed on Justin Jefferson for Jalen Reagor in 2020, passed on signing Robby Anderson in free agency, and ultimately opted against trading for the likes of Stefon Diggs and DeAndre Hopkins.

Clearly, Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz don’t have a great relationship, and that appears to be the driving force behind Wentz’ eventual departure. However, it’s impossible to ignore the role that Roseman – hiding away in the shadows – has played in all of this. Sure, he was the one who convinced owner Jeffrey Lurie to pay Wentz $100+ million last year, but literally every quarterback gets paid franchise money these days. Lofty contract aside for the moment, Roseman has repeatedly pulled off moves that have signaled a lack of faith, and overall lack of trust in Wentz as a person.

And before we all jump to the conclusion that Roseman somewhat “predicted” Wentz’ downfall in 2020, and was correct to overdraft Jalen Hurts this past offseason, let’s take a look at some of the Eagles starting QBs under Howie’s watch:

Outside of Wentz (and I guess Foles/Vick?), it hasn’t been too great. Hard to call Howie a consistently good QB talent evaluator.

Ultimately speaking, a lot of people are to blame for this Wentz “fracturing.” Whether you’re a fan of Carson or not, it’s never good business to have to eat a $30+ million dead cap hit to trade away your former #2 overall pick QB. This is a horrifically bad situation for the Philadelphia Eagles, and one that deserves a TON of criticism. This isn’t a regular situation in football  – this is one that the Eagles organization specifically facilitated via bad decision after bad decision.