Dave Zangaro and Reuben Frank react to a report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen regarding Carson Wentz’s status with the Indianapolis Colts following a disastrous end to the 2021 regular season.
When Randall Cunningham had that MVP season late in his career with the Vikings, he wasn’t remotely the same quarterback he was as a kid with the Eagles.
During his three Pro Bowl seasons here – 1988 through 1990 – Cunningham ran 315 times for 2,187 yards and 10 touchdowns.
At that time, he was the greatest running quarterback in history.
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READ: The miracle of the hapless 1999 Eagles season
Only 27 years old, Cunningham was already No. 2 in NFL history in QB rushing yards behind Fran Tarkenton, who needed 18 years to pile up his record.
Then Bryce Paup happened.
A few snaps into the 1991 season, Cunningham tore his ACL when Packers edge rusher Bryce Paup went for his knees at Lambeau. And although he was still a decent runner when he returned a year later, he was never the same after that injury.
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Now look at Cunningham’s 1998 MVP season with the Vikings. He threw 34 touchdowns and eight interceptions, went 13-1, had a 106.0 passer rating.
And get this: He ran 22 times. All year.
Officially, he was credited with 32 carries, but 10 of those were kneel downs. It took a while and there was even a year of retirement in there in 1996, but Cunningham transformed himself from the greatest rushing QB in history into an MVP passer.
Out of necessity.
He couldn’t be Superweapon any longer, so he turned himself into the best passer in the league.
Now, it didn’t hurt that he had Randy Moss and Cris Carter to throw to, but if Cunningham hadn’t embraced a new way of playing football he never would have had the success he had with Minnesota.
That’s an extreme example, but it’s probably true of most great athletes. To stay at the top of their game, they have to adjust the way they play as they grow older, their bodies change and injuries, wear and tear and age prevent them from doing the things they used to do.
All of which brings us to Carson Wentz.
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about his career and just how bizarre his decline has been. I’ve tried to understand how he could turn so quickly from an elite MVP candidate to quite possibly a journeyman headed for his third team in three years and not even guaranteed a starting job in 2022.
The easy answer is the knee. That he never truly recovered from the knee injury he suffered against the Rams in December 2017. And it was a bad one. Not only did he tear his ACL, he tore his lateral collateral ligament and damaged his IT band.
But I’m not buying it. Quarterbacks bounce back from injuries all the time. Even severe ones. But to do it they have to change the way they play.
And that’s the problem.
Think back to just how good Wentz was in 2017.
No Eagles quarterback has ever had a better stretch than Wentz in 2017 during the Eagles’ nine-game winning streak from Week 3 to Week 12. He threw 24 TDs and two INTs and had a 108.6 passer rating – highest in franchise history by any QB over any nine-game span.
He played fearlessly back then and his body allowed him to. Breaking away from tackles, spinning out of trouble in the pocket, changing direction to keep defenders off balance, making crazy throws on the move, carrying the pile on his back.
Wentz can’t do that anymore. He simply is unable to move and run and change direction and escape like he used to. He turns 30 this coming season, and he’s had back, knee and foot issues in addition to the concussion in the Seattle playoff game, and it’s taken a toll.
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The injuries aren’t threatening his career, his stubbornness is.
Because ultimately it’s been his refusal to adapt to his changing skill set that’s doomed him.
He just won’t change the way he plays. Even though he can no longer be effective playing that way.
I’ll never forget what Wentz said the first time we talked to him after the ACL four years ago.
“I am who I am. Injuries aren’t going to change me.”
And that’s the problem.
He keeps trying to play like Carson Wentz of 2017 and his body won’t let him.
Instead of focusing on what he can still do – which is throw a football really well – he continues to try to be Superman and make plays that he simply can no longer make.
And who knows how that same stubbornness has affected his relationships with his coaches and teammates. There are strong signs that it has. If your coaches are trying to get you to play one way and you won’t, that’s when you become uncoachable. And that’s when two teams in two years sour on you.
Wentz still has the ability to play at a really high level.
Get this: From Week 4 through Week 16 – a 12-game span – he threw 22 TDs and 5 INTs and completed 64 percent of his passes. The Colts went 9-3 during that period, and only Aaron Rodgers and Joe Burrow had a higher passer rating.
But then you see him in the biggest moments reverting back to the guy whose mind says it’s still 2017 while his body keeps insisting it’s 2021.
You can’t win with that Carson Wentz.
It took Randall quite a while till it all clicked, and maybe that'll happen with Carson, too.
I’m convinced there’s still a gifted quarterback in there somewhere. He’s just got to come to terms with some difficult realities about the way he plays quarterback.
And I’m not sure he can.
