ESPN's Gruden high on Eagles' Wentz in Year 2
“The kid was well-trained at North Dakota State,’’ the analyst says.
Carson Wentz had his ups and downs as a rookie quarterback for the Eagles last season, but those 16 starts he made and those 607 passes he threw should pay big dividends in Year 2.
"The biggest benefit is he's got the same play-caller,'' ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden said Wednesday on a pre-draft conference call with reporters. "He's got, I think, a better receiving corps. And the reps will add up. This won't be his first rodeo.
"He's going to be able to go into his second year as a starter calling the same plays, handling situations and audibles better than he did the first time around just because of experience. That's a great, great thing that not a lot of quarterbacks have anymore. Same system, same play-caller for two seasons.''
At least three, and probably four, quarterbacks are expected to be taken in the first round of the draft next week. None of them will be ready to play. They all are Children of the Spread, strangers to huddles and audibles, changing protections and making read progressions.
That wasn't the case with Wentz last year when the Eagles traded Sam Bradford eight days before the start of the season and made him the starter. He had played in a pro-style offense at North Dakota State that put him ahead of the game when he arrived in the NFL.
"The kid was well-trained at North Dakota State,'' Gruden said. "I was just up there for a clinic a couple of weeks ago. I had a chance to watch North Dakota State from close range. They train quarterbacks differently there. They train football players differently there.
"They're in a huddle. They use a lot of motion and shifts and a volume of plays. And they put a lot on the quarterback at the line of scrimmage. And I think that helped (Wentz) dramatically handle the variety and all the different things that are in the Eagles' playbook.
"He also has a great personality. He can relate to people. That's another skill that is very underrated. Your communications skills. And he's got that.''