Washington keep collecting the wrong former Philadelphia Eagles

Things aren’t going great for former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz in his first-ever camp with the Washington Commanders. He’s reportedly overthrowing passes, struggling with consistency, and drawing concern from fans and pundits alike.

While Ron Rivera has declared that he isn’t overly concerned with what’s going on with Wentz, he has declaired that the former second-overall pick will play in the preseason opener and may (presumably) play more too, depending on how things shake out.

Needless to say, this is less than ideal for a team with a new name, an owner under fire, and a head coach looking not to get fired before he can fully build the team he wants just outside of the nation’s Capitol, as Washington saw their season tank in 2021 by a lack of consistent quarterback play following the Week 1 loss of Ryan Fitzpatrick and unfortunately, that fate may befall them again.

So naturally, with Wentz’s summer off to a pretty rough start, it only makes sense that Washington would return to the Philadelphia Eagles well and sign another sup-par performer who played a part in the entire coaching staff being fired back in January of 2021, right? Considering Nathan Gerry is now a member of the Commanders, it certainly looks that way.

Why Nathan Gerry failed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020.

from 2017-19, Nathan Gerry was actually a pretty good performer for the Philadelphia Eagles. He wasn’t elite, mind you, and didn’t play an every-down role for the Birds either, but he was a very good special teamer who logged an average of 257 special teams snaps per season and took on an increasingly expansive role as an off-ball 4-3 linebacker.

By 2019, Gerry was playing 61 percent of Philly’s defensive snaps as the outside linebacking foil to Nigel Bradham in the middle and played well enough to garner quite a bit of praise from fans the football world over. In hindsight, it is sort of laughable, I will admit, but at the time, the prospects of giving an even bigger role to a linebacker who logged a pair of picks, 2.5 sacks, 78 tackles, and a defensive touchdown seemed like a borderline no-brainer, with the team’s long-standing doubt of second-level talent maybe, just maybe coming to an end.

But then, it happened: Gerry received the headset, and his game fell apart. Call it Gerry’s newness to the linebacking position, call it a classic case of a little too much a little too fast, heck, even blame it on an Achillies injury that eventually landed him on IR, but the Nebraska product was never quite able to live up to such lofty expectations and was quietly allowed to hit the open market when his contract expired at the end of the season.

Since then, Gerry signed with the San Francisco 49ers for training camp and ended up landing on their practice squad but never played in a game and has ultimately signed with the Washington Commanders in the hopes of getting his career back on track.

Is the third time the charm for Nathan Gerry? Will he be able to recapture some of his 2019 form in a new, less-involved role a la Shaq Thompson under Ron Rivera in Carolina? Or will he instead struggle with inconsistency and see his football career come to an end? Either way, best to keep a keen eye on Gerry on special teams, as he can likely still fill that role even if he never becomes an every-down kind of performer.