By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
If newly signed Philadelphia Eagles running-back LeGarrette Blount wants to endear himself to the fanbase, he picked a good place to start Thursday.
The 30-year-old running-back spoke to Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia's Derrick Gunn after his introductory press conference, and suggested that he thinks Carson Wentz is the best quarterback to come out of the 2016 NFL Draft class:
"Physically, he's ideal. That's exactly the size of a quarterback that you would want. He's big, he's strong, he's athletic, he's mobile and he can throw the ball. And he's a smart guy, he's really smart. He doesn't turn the ball over a lot. So up-and-coming is right, I feel like he's probably the best quarterback in his draft class. The Eagles got one of the better guys in the draft with him."
Wentz, of course, was taken one pick behind Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff. One year is far too early to jump to any conclusions about a quarterback, but if the league offered the Rams a mulligan, they probably wouldn't have selected Goff with the No. 1 overall pick. In his rookie season, Wentz did display the impressive athleticism that Blount spoke of, while tossing 16 touchdowns to 14 picks, rushing for 150 yards and posting a 62.4 percent completion percentage. Goff didn't play until late November, and in his seven starts he threw just five touchdowns, had seven picks and fumbled five times.
If league executives were polled on whether they would prefer to have Wentz or Goff, it would be a near unanimous selection for Wentz. (It probably would have leaned in Wentz's favor prior to the NFL Draft, as well.) That said, Wentz wasn't the rookie quarterback who drew the most national attention in 2016.
Dak Prescott, who the Cowboys took in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft, threw 23 touchdowns to four interceptions for the Cowboys in 2016, while making the Pro-Bowl and winning the Rookie of the Year Award. Additionally, Prescott and the Cowboys went 13-3, which was enough to take the No. 1 seed into the playoffs, where they were eventually upset by Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
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Despite the fact that Prescott had a more statistically successful rookie season, there's still a case to be made that Wentz will be the better long-term quarterback. While Prescott delivered a more impressive rookie season, he did so behind the best offensive line in the NFL and with the help of Ezekiel Elliott, Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley and Jason Witten. Wentz, on the other hand, flashed elite quarterback potential with a below-average supporting cast.
While the Cowboys' offense remains deeper in talent than that of the Eagles, Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas added Blount, Alshon Jeffery, Torrey Smith, Donnel Pumphrey, Mack Hollins and Shelton Gibson this offseason in an attempt to surround their franchise quarterback with more talent. When you add those names to Jordan Matthews, Darren Sproles, Zach Ertz, Jason Peters, Lane Johnson and Brandon Brooks, the Eagles offense certainly seems improved from where they were at this time last year.
Whether Blount meant to or not, he became the latest to engage in a debate that figures to make talking heads a lot of money over the course of the next half decade. From Blount's perspective, he hopes to help tilt the debate back in the favor of Wentz.
