Carson Wentz is back in the Super Bowl, just not the way he wanted
NEW ORLEANS – The first time Carson Wentz went to the Super Bowl, all he wanted to do was make it back. “Fuel,” Wentz called it. Sidelined by the first what-if of a career that would be haunted by them, he watched his Philadelphia Eagles teammates win without him. He cherished the experience, but it felt painfully incomplete, like a dream in black and white.
In his ninth NFL season, Wentz has made it back. At Super Bowl 59, though, he is again on the periphery of the spectacle, a former star just outside the frame. He is backing up the player he was supposed to be against the franchise he was supposed to be it for.
Wentz’s time as a franchise quarterback has faded. He is on his fifth team in five seasons. He has started two games in the past two years, both for teams playing with their playoff fate sealed. At 6-foot-5 and a lean 237 pounds, Wentz looks like the same strapping passer drafted second in 2016. But a battered body and a scarred psyche have relegated him to the league’s fringes.
“No one comes into this league getting drafted where you got drafted looking for that,” Wentz said. “But at the same time, it’s the hand I’ve been dealt.”
At the precise moment the Kansas City Chiefs made Patrick Mahomes their starting quarterback seven years ago, they would have been thrilled if someone had told them they had found the next Carson Wentz. Wentz had come within one ill-fated tackle of winning an MVP award that instead went to Tom Brady. Now, Wentz and Mahomes share a locker room and occupy opposite ends of NFL quarterbacking status.
There is a difference, Wentz said, between having peace and being at peace. Deeply religious, Wentz believes God controls his journey. Getting married and having three girls changed how he prioritized his job. He is proud of having reached another Super Bowl, backup or not. But he also grapples with the path his career has taken.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ever easy,” Wentz said. “It’s clear in the Bible – people wrestle with God. God wants us to bring our real emotions to him. For me to say it’s easy to go through an injury – no. It’s never easy. I have real human emotions. But at the end of the day when I wrestle through it, I come to a place of peace.”
Dreams derailed
In his second season, at 25, Wentz became everything a franchise dreams about when it drafts a quarterback second overall. He passed for more than 250 yards per game. He ran with power and elusiveness. He was magic on third down. He led the NFL in quarterback rating, an advanced metric that evaluates contributions in totality. He led the Eagles to 11 victories in 13 starts. He was an overwhelming favorite to win the MVP award.
“He was just a gamer, man,” Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said. “It’s sort of like Mahomes playing backyard football. When Carson was hot, he was hot.”
Wentz might have been playing his best game in Week 14, when he dropped back on first-and-goal from the Los Angeles Rams’ 2-yard line late in the third quarter. He rolled right and sprinted toward an opening. As Wentz dived into the end zone, linebacker Mark Barron flew into his knees. Wentz hobbled to the huddle – a penalty negated his touchdown. On fourth down, he threw a go-ahead touchdown pass, his fourth of the day. Then he limped into the locker room with a towel over his head and began to process the damage Barron’s tackle had wrought: He had torn the ACL and lateral collateral ligament in his left knee.
Sidelined with the first major injury of his life, Wentz watched the franchise built around him thrive in his absence. Backup Nick Foles steered the underdog Eagles to a Super Bowl victory.
“You dream of that moment as a kid,” Wentz said. “You dream of holding that Lombardi Trophy, all those things. But you don’t envision doing it in street clothes.”
When Wentz returned in 2018, he was greeted not as a savior but as the guy retaking his job from a quarterback who now had a statue outside Lincoln Financial Field. Wentz struggled with Foles’ success. The awkwardness only grew when Wentz cracked three vertebrae late in the season. Foles rallied the Eagles again, winning four consecutive starts, including a playoff victory, before losing in the divisional round.
“When he got hurt, things changed a little bit,” Graham said. “When he first came, he was balling. We saw it each and every day. I just felt bad for him, because when he got hurt, it seemed like he didn’t capture that back as much as he wanted to.”
The Eagles had to decide that offseason between Wentz and Foles, and they chose Wentz. He signed a four-year, $128 million contract. At the end of a rocky season, the Eagles caught fire entering the playoffs. Wentz had an opportunity to win his own Super Bowl. On the first drive of his first career playoff game, Wentz suffered a concussion after Jadeveon Clowney landed on his head. The Eagles lost to the Seattle Seahawks.
“You play a lot of what-ifs in your life,” Wentz said. “That’s where my faith in Jesus tells the story for me. I can do what I can. At the end of the day, God’s writing the story.”
Had Wentz not been concussed and led the Eagles to a playoff victory, the Eagles may have decided without qualification that he was their future. Instead, in the second round of the 2020 draft, they selected Jalen Hurts.
“You feel you got to go get somebody, because you didn’t know if he was going to be hurt or not,” Graham said. “That started to be the narrative. That was hard for him to come out of.”
Within the Eagles, many sensed insecurity in Wentz. Even though they had signed him to a massive contract, he bristled at Hurts’ presence. Wentz was a different, diminished quarterback. He took 50 sacks and threw 15 interceptions in 2020, both the most in the NFL, in 12 starts. The Eagles went 3-8-1 in those games. Hurts, then a rookie, took over and showed enough to convince the Eagles to make him their starter in 2021.
The Eagles shipped Wentz to Indianapolis for first- and third-round picks, and his career went into a spiral. His poor performance in the final two games of 2021, including an inexplicable loss to the 2-14 Jacksonville Jaguars, knocked the Colts out of playoff contention. Wentz’s performance so angered owner Jim Irsay that he demanded the franchise trade him, and Indianapolis found an eager taker in Washington.
“He’s been a pretty confident guy,” said Scott Turner, then Washington’s offensive coordinator. “This league can be very humbling, so I think he was going through a little bit of that. He understood, ‘OK, this is my last chance to remain a starter.’ ”
Wentz showed signs of a potential revival, passing for 650 yards in the first two weeks. His performance sputtered from there, and in a Thursday night victory over the Chicago Bears, he broke his hand slamming it on a lineman’s helmet. Backup Taylor Heinicke led Washington to the outskirts of playoff contention, but he slumped and Wentz’s hand healed. With its season on the line in Week 16, Washington turned back to Wentz. It was an outright disaster. He passed for 143 yards, threw three interceptions and took three sacks behind an offensive line that would be almost entirely replaced in the offseason. It remains the last meaningful game Wentz has started.
Keeping the faith
Wentz did not sign with a new team during the 2023 offseason, holding out for a chance to compete for a starting position that never came. He hooked on with the Rams that November and played the finale, after they had been eliminated. He led them to a victory over the San Francisco 49ers, completing 17 of 24 passes, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for another. It did nothing to change how front offices viewed him.
While Wentz weighed his options last spring, the Chiefs called. He saw an opportunity to join a “culture of excellence” and learn from coach Andy Reid. Wentz signed a one-year contract worth $3.3 million.
Any backup quarterback could make an impact in the Super Bowl – no one knows better than the man who ceded to Foles.
Before every Chiefs drive, Wentz jets a few yards onto the field and fires passes on the run to coaches or reserve wide receivers, his method of staying loose. It is so noticeable that teammates once asked him if he thought Mahomes was hurt.
“Obviously, I want to play,” Wentz said. “Everybody in this room would be lying if they said they didn’t want to play on the field.”
Wentz remains hopeful he can compete for a starting position next season. The quarterback landscape leaves few clear paths. Multiple evaluators cast doubt that he can be a No. 1 quarterback again, but Chiefs quarterback coach David Girardi said Wentz “100%” could become a starter: “Athletically, the talent, the ability, the intelligence – all that stuff.”
“There’s always time for redemption,” said Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson, who remains friends with Wentz. “He’s a guy who continues to work. He’ll find his way again.”
First, he will stand on the sideline and stay ready Sunday night.
Wentz said it would not be weird to play against the Eagles. He already has faced them since he left and, besides, the NFL moves fast.
Most of the friends he made in Philadelphia no longer play there. Years have passed. Wentz is back in the Super Bowl, still trying to become the player he used to be.