Murphy: Ranking current Wentz & potential Wentz among QBs

THOUGHT experiment:

Through some combination of quantum mechanics, economic catastrophe and sheer boredom, the NFL announces that it is tearing up all of its rosters and re-divvying up teams by way of a leaguewide draft to be held the day after tomorrow. Not only is every active player eligible to be selected, each player will also transform back to his rookie self, meaning one lucky team will have the services of a 23-year-old Tom Brady, while another lands a 23-year-old Matt Ryan, and a 22-year-old Aaron Rodgers (this time, with no 36-year-old veteran ahead of him on the depth chart). In other words, each of their careers will play out as they have up to this present moment, and then who knows beyond (in terms of individual physical development . . . you don't automatically get the Super Bowls).

Question: With what pick would you take Carson Wentz?

Here's the first draft of my draft board:

Aaron Rodgers

Drew Brees

Andrew Luck

Tom Brady

Matt Ryan

Philip Rivers

Russell Wilson

Ben Roethlisberger

Carson Wentz

Eli Manning

Jameis Winston

Ryan Tannehill

Dak Prescott

Matthew Stafford

Carson Palmer

Marcus Mariota

Joe Flacco

Cam Newton

Sam Bradford

Derek Carr

Kirk Cousins

Andy Dalton

Alex Smith

Mike Glennon

Blake Bortles

Jay Cutler

Jared Goff

Trevor Siemian

Brock Osweiler

Tyrod Taylor

Colin Kaepernick

While this entirely realistic exercise is meant to be treated with the utmost gravity, and while I will spend today agonizing over the hate email you will soon compose ridiculing me for my selections, the main point is not to spark a comments-section brouhaha about whether Osweiler or Taylor deserves a loftier place in the NFL's quarterback hierarchy. Rather, it's to get down on paper the process with which I've watched football ever since the Eagles traded up to draft Wentz at No. 2 overall.

It's one of the fun things about life in a town with a young up-and-comer at quarterback: Every game featuring a quarterback who has already proved himself to be elite has some degree of relevance for the hometown team. Sunday's action offered a fairly representative sample of the various degrees of Franchise Quarterbackdom that exist within the stratum. In Rodgers, Roethlisberger, Smith and Prescott, we essentially had four different archetypes for Future Carson Wentz.

Rodgers is the most physically gifted quarterback in NFL history, and the evidence was on display throughout the Packers' scintillating, 34-31 victory over the Cowboys. If you think Bill Belichick wouldn't have as many rings with Rodgers at quarterback as he does with Brady, you're wrong. If you could combine all of the best attributes from all of the NFL greats to form one super quarterback, you would be wasting your time, because genetics already did it, and his name is Aaron Rodgers. He has Brady's arm strength and poise, Brees' quick release spiral, Peyton Manning's pocket awareness and accuracy, Roethlisberger's mobility and escapability, and his own footwork, which is already the greatest of all time.

Wentz already has the arm strength, and after watching Smith against the Steelers, I'm even more convinced that trait was one of the big reasons Doug Pederson favored the rookie over incumbent Sam Bradford. Smith didn't do anything to lose the game for the Chiefs. In fact, if his receivers had not come down with a severe case of Eagles-itis, they might very well have won. Regardless of the drops, there were a number of throws over the course of the game in which a quarterback with a cannon might have been able to accomplish what Smith could not. There was a deep throw to Jeremy Maclin that Smith floated over the outside shoulder rather than leading him over the inside shoulder for what should have been a touchdown. There was the final failed two-point conversion pass, which a quarterback with a stronger arm might have been able to force through traffic. And there was just the totality of the performance, with Smith flawlessly executing the short-to-intermediate stuff but failing to push anything down the field the way Rodgers and, to a lesser extent, Roethlisberger were able to do in their games.

The biggest determinant of Wentz's future will be the other two qualities that Rodgers flashed in abundance on Sunday: the footwork and the release. The latter was on display on two of his most impressive throws of the game, both to Jared Cook, one late in the first quarter, the second on that remarkable sideline catch on the Packers' game-winning drive. On the first one, he was rolling right with a defender in his face but was nevertheless able to wait until the last possible moment to make his throw and still get off a bullet with barely any windup. Another example came on the Packers' first drive of the second half, when Rodgers threw a strike on the run to Randall Cobb, getting just enough mustard on it to keep it from sailing out of bounds despite releasing it as a defensive lineman arrived to shove him to the turf. There were countless other examples. In baseball, scouts measure the time a pitcher takes to deliver a ball to home out of the stretch. Rodgers' numbers would be off the charts. The velocity he can get on his throws without a windup is remarkable.

It will be interesting to see what kind of work Wentz is able to do on his mechanics this offseason. His long delivery is not a deal-breaker – see Roethlisberger – and nobody has ever thrown the ball like Rodgers does, but his ability to quicken his release will play a huge role in whether he is able to reach his ceiling.

At this point, going by my list, I'd put Rodgers as Wentz' ceiling and Flacco as his floor, with his eventual fate falling somewhere on the spectrum between. We've seen enough to know that the Eagles can win with Wentz. The question he'll answer with his development is how much of a team he needs around him.

dmurphy@phillynews.com

@ByDavidMurphy