Carson Wentz is Now a Colt and All the Eagles Got Were Two Lousy Draft Picks
By Liam McKeone
The Carson Wentz saga is done. Over. Fin. Finally. The quarterback was traded on Thursday after weeks of rumor-mongering. He will now suit up for the Indianapolis Colts as the Philadelphia Eagles shipped out the man they believed to be the future of the franchise in exchange for two draft picks. The Eagles get a third-round pick in 2021 and a conditional 2022 second-round pick that could turn into a first-round pick if Wentz plays 75 percent of his snaps next season, or he plays 70 percent and the Colts make the postseason.
Philadelphia has agreed to trade Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick and a conditional 2022 second-round pick that could turn into a first, league sources tell @mortreport and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 18, 2021
If Carson Wentz’s playtime is at or above 75% next season, the conditional 2022 second-round pick would become a first-round pick, per sources. The second-round pick also.could become a first if Wentz plays at least 70 percent of the plays and the Colts go to the playoffs.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 18, 2021
The conditions on that second-rounder are actually quite favorable for Philly. Wentz just needs to appear in 12 games next year for the Eagles to get a first-round pick. Wentz has legitimate injury concerns but he's hit that 12-game mark every season of his career except for 2017. There is the chance that he stinks so badly he gets benched, of course, just like he did this past year. But the Colts are going all-in on Wentz as their QB of the future and he would have to be downright abysmal for them to even consider planting him on the cold steel of the sideline. Then there's the possibility that Wentz stays healthy but doesn't play well enough to get the Colts into the playoff race. In which case Indianapolis could simply bench him for the final four games of the season and fork over a second-round pick instead. What content that would be, huh? And it's not even that unrealistic!
But that isn't exactly the two first-round-pick minimum price the Eagles attempted to set quite recently. It's not even the first-round pick price they settled on last week. It's a third-rounder and a second-rounder next year that has a decent chance of turning into a first-rounder.
Is that worth what the Eagles gave up for Wentz? Is it worth having to carry a $33 million cap hit into 2021 just for the privilege of not having him on the roster? No. No it is not.
The Eagles spent five draft picks to acquire Carson Wentz in 2016. They gave him a $128M contract 20 months ago.
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) February 18, 2021
They're now taking on a cap hit in excess $33M to essentially get out of the contract and get a 2021 3rd-round pick and a 2022 2nd or 1st-rd pick.
Man. Only 20 months ago the Eagles were all-in on Wentz. Then they trade him for whatever they could squeeze out of Indy.
How quickly things change. This could end up being a solid "good for both sides" deal. If Wentz brings the Colts to the playoffs, they'll be more than happy to fork over a first-round pick in next year's draft. The Eagles can tell themselves they got something substantial out of the deal. There have been worse trades in the NFL. Still, it is the largest dead cap hit for any player in NFL history and Philly has only themselves to blame.