Carson Wentz’s Confidence has him Ready for NFL Stage

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Confidence, poise, determination, smarts. Carson Wentz has all of these qualities. That is what the Eagles are riding on going into Sunday's season opener, when Wentz will take the field as the starting quarterback. 

There is a big question if Wentz is ready or not, and the truth is, no, he's probably not ready.

Just don't tell him that.

The long offseason journey that would find the Eagles and Carson Wentz united on Draft Day truly began in January.

The Eagles hired Doug Pederson as the new head coach on Jan. 18. Within days, former quarterbacks Frank Reich and John DeFilippo joined the staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. This was a team with a ton of quarterback experience, ready to be shared with a talented up-and-coming quarterback with the chance to make an impact on the future of the franchise.

The popular name leading up to the draft is Carson Wentz. 

On March 1, however, the Eagles re-signed Sam Bradford, seemingly ending all talk of the team moving up for a quarterback.

One week later, the Eagles make their first impactful trade, sending Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell and the 13th overall pick to Miami for the eighth overall pick. They also make a second trade sending DeMarco Murray to Tennessee as well as swapping fourth-round picks.

Then, just eight days before the draft, the Eagles pull the trigger on the big splash of the offseason, acquiring the second overall pick from the Browns for the eighth overall pick and a host of other picks, among them, the Eagles 2017 first-round pick. Suddenly, Wentz is in play for the Eagles, and that is indeed who the Eagles are after.

Eight days later, Wentz officially became and Eagle. From there, the prospect of Wentz playing, and soon, is evident and became a reality last week with the trade of Bradford to Minnesota. It's Wentz team now and the show starts on Sunday.

While the question of whether Wentz is ready or not may be one of doubt to experts and fans, the second overall pick has always been ready to go from Day 1.

Three days prior to being drafted by the Eagles, Wentz wrote an article for The Players Tribune. These are his words then, some four months before this moment:

 

Am I worried about whether I can have the same success at the next level? Of course not. I’m excited to show people exactly what I can do…At North Dakota State, I was taught to recognize the same zone pressures, blitzes, stunts and twists as the other guys in the draft. Our offense would run the ball with no receivers and then spread it out wide with five guys. We did it all.

The speed will be an adjustment, but it is for everybody, whether you’re coming from the SEC or Division III. I’m as ready for it as I can possibly be.

So what do I say to all the people who wonder if I’m ready for the NFL?

I’ve been getting ready my whole life."

Wentz further confirmed his confidence in the moment to come on Sunday when he was a guest on the morning show on 94 WIP on Wednesday.

I feel ever since I got here, I felt very comfortable with things. I feel like I developed at a very fast pace. I know one thing for sure, the moment is not gonna shock me. It’s still just football. Once the game starts, it’s still just a game of football. I’m excited for it and ready to show what I can do."

It's still just football. It's a line Wentz uses often. Let's go back to that Player's Tribune piece.

There’s this belief that I’m at some sort of disadvantage coming into the league because of where I’m from. But if you get to know me, you’ll understand that being from North Dakota isn’t a disadvantage. Not even close. In fact, having been raised in North Dakota is probably one of my greatest strengths.

Let me tell you right now — football is football, no matter if it’s played in the Rose Bowl or on a dusty field in Bismarck. Those warm southern states may produce the most NFL talent, but there’s a special brand of football going on up north."

It's a sentiment echoed by the Eagles coaches, who made the decision in the wake of the Bradford trade that the time was now for Wentz to be in command.

"Everybody feels like this kid is ready to go," Pederson said on Monday. "We drafted him to take on the reins. It's something now that we're prepared to do and looking forward to Cleveland. One day at a time with him. At the same time we've got to be obviously smart in how we handle it. But at the same time, fully expect him to perform like he's capable of performing."

"When you look and evaluate Carson, if there's five to seven key boxes that you're trying to check off for a guy that can come in and be an elite quarterback, he checks off all the boxes," Reich said on Thursday. "Furthermore, if you're scoring on all those boxes on a 1-to-10 scale, he scores a nine or 10 on a lot of those boxes. But all that being said, it's probably the most difficult position to play in sports and there are so many factors that go into it. There's no doubt in my mind that he's ready to play, but there's so many factors that can happen and we'll see how it all plays out. We're just very confident and excited about what's coming up."

"I’ve been fortunate. I’ve been around a lot of first-year guys," quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo said to CSN Philly. "I’ve been around Mark Sanchez, Derek Carr, some guys like that who had some success as rookies and Carson is just as far along as those guys were. He’s ready to go and he’s a very mature kid. He is further along in the football world than the majority of the rookies I’ve been around."

On Sunday, we'll truly see how ready Carson Wentz is for the NFL stage. But in his own mind, and the minds of his coaches, he's confident and ready. That's a good enough sign for the Eagles, who are now resting both the present and future in his hands. No matter what happens on Sunday, it's sure to be a day that will live in Eagles history forever — the dawning of a new era, a new coach, a new quarterback and a new beginning.