By Tucker Bagley, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
When the Eagles drafted Carson Wentz with the second overall pick, the North Dakota State product was considered to be far from a finished product. But after just two career starts, Wentz has impressed everyone with his ability to take care of the football and make smart decisions.
The main issue the plagued Wentz at NDSU and during his lone preseason game was his footwork, especially in the pocket. Wentz often refused to move his feet once his dropback was complete, and as a result, he struggled to elude pass rushers and was unable to make accurate throws to the third or fourth receiver in his progression.
But something funny happened on Monday night in Chicago: Wentz's worst flaw was suddenly no more.
While the interior of his offensive line struggled all night, Wentz was able to maneuver the pocket and elude the pass rush while keeping his eyes downfield.
Yes, it is natural for a gifted, young quarterback to fix his flaws at a reasonably quick rate, but this big of a jump in this quick of a timeframe is impressive. In April, I wrote about how slowly Wentz moved his feet in the pocket, but by looking at his first preseason start, it was apparent he already had learned how to speed his feet up, like on this throw to Zach Ertz:
Wentz was able to step up in the pocket and hit the tight end for the first down. His ability to throw without his feet set is a tremendous asset and comes in handy on this throw.
However, he still struggled with pocket awareness in his first NFL start, as evident on this throw that ended up being nullified due to a defensive holding penalty:
Wentz has a clean pocket and plenty of time, but his feet never move once he gets to the top of his drop. Despite having time to work through his progression, he locks on Josh Huff, who is in double coverage. Instead of moving and resetting his feet to work through his progression, the rookie forces an ill-advised throw into coverage.
With the Browns only rushing three, Wentz had himself a lot of time to make a better choice with the ball and try to find an open receiver. But something must have clicked for the QB in the past week, because he did this on Monday night:
As soon as Wentz gets to the top of his drop off the play action, he senses the pressure coming from his right and climbs the pocket before dropping a dime into the hands of Jordan Matthews for a big gain down the right sideline. Everything about this is picture perfect and just shows how much Wentz has grown in his short time studying under Doug Pederson and the other quarterbacks on this roster and coaching staff.
Moving forward, Wentz's footwork will be come into more scrutiny if and when Lane Johnson is suspended. If the Eagles top offensive linemen is gone, it will be imperative that the rookie elude pressure in order to buy himself time to find wide receivers down the field. If not, he will take some big hits and the offense will regress as a result.
