Sielski: Time for Eagles wide receivers to start helping Wentz
While the literary world anticipates the publication of Jon Gruden's debut novel, Love in the Time of Carson, let us contemplate a deep and meaningful question about the Eagles: Just how good would Carson Wentz be if his wide receivers had opposable thumbs?
While the literary world anticipates the publication of Jon Gruden's debut novel, Love in the Time of Carson, let us contemplate a deep and meaningful question about the Eagles: Just how good would Carson Wentz be if his wide receivers had opposable thumbs?
In a broader sense - beyond, for instance, the Eagles' place in the NFC East standings this season - the Eagles' 29-14 victory Monday night over the Bears and Wentz's performance in it were beneficial to anyone who follows the NFL. They showed the limitations of judging a professional athlete (in football, anyway) solely by his statistics. Wentz's passing numbers from the game were relatively modest: 21 completions in 34 attempts for 190 yards and a touchdown. But to watch how he played - with confidence and decisiveness and in total command of the Eagles' offense - was to have more skepticism about his ability and his future fall away, especially since three of the most impressive passes weren't caught.
The first represented what was arguably the most egregious mistake any Eagles player made Monday: Jordan Matthews' drop of what should have been a 35-yard touchdown from Wentz late in the first half, a pass that traveled in a smooth and flawless parabola from Wentz's right hand to the foot of empty air in front of Matthews' chest. That Matthews dropped the ball didn't merely cost the Eagles a touchdown. It was aesthetically offensive.
Later, Nelson Agholor failed to catch two contested passes, one of which would have been a touchdown, and though those plays were more difficult than Matthews', it's fair to expect a first-round pick such as Agholor to make them. The people who run the scouting service and statistical database Pro Football Focus apparently determined Agholor should have. They sent out a tweet after Monday's game saying that the Eagles had dropped three passes worth an aggregate 82 yards. Had Matthews and Agholor caught those throws, Wentz's statistics would have been more reflective of how well he had played: 24-of-34, 272 yards, three touchdowns.
Now, what is and what is not a "drop" is often in the eye of the website operator. As of early Tuesday afternoon, for instance, SportingCharts.com had not assigned Agholor any dropped passes through the Eagles' first two games. It did have Matthews with two drops over the 23 times that Wentz has targeted him. Both of those - the first pass Wentz threw in the season-opener against the Browns and the would-be TD against the Bears - were clear-cut, and if the sheer number of drops for which Matthews and Agholor have been responsible can be disputed, the effect of those drops cannot.
It's one thing to drop a five-yard out on third and 20. It's another to let a potential touchdown in a close game slip through your hands. Matthews dropped 11 passes through his first two seasons with the Eagles, according to SportingCharts. And Agholor had a particularly memorable and costly drop last season, when he couldn't hang on to a potential 28-yard score in the 38-24 loss to the Redskins that eliminated the Eagles from postseason contention.
"They just continue to work every day," coach Doug Pederson said Tuesday. "Sometimes things like that happen. I mean, they know. They understand it. They're professionals, and they pride themselves obviously on catching the football, and you could tell last night that they were mad at themselves. You are right. Those are big plays.
"I'm not going to stop calling plays to them because they're explosive guys for us. We've just got to continue to work."
There wasn't much else for Pederson to say. As a team, the Eagles led the NFL last season in drops (37) and drop rate (6.0), per SportingCharts. Their collective case of butterfingers has been a problem for a while, but there isn't much Pederson or any coach can do to help Matthews, Agholor, and the rest of the Eagles' receivers fix it, save for trying to keep their confidence up.
"That's one thing for me as a play-caller and being in that position as a [former] quarterback," Pederson said, "I actually want to call plays to go right back to those guys and get them right back catching the football and focused in and letting those guys work."
For their parts, Wentz hasn't let the drops get to him - so far, he seems pretty impervious to the complications that can rattle a rookie quarterback - and Pederson has held together a locker room that went through a good bit of upheaval during the offseason and preseason. That said, if Pederson plans to implement any additional team-building strategies, they probably shouldn't include a trust fall with Matthews. At this point, it might be a challenge to find a teammate who will risk partnering with him.
@MikeSielski