Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Many reasons to expect Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz to improve | Jeff McLane

The quarterback took steps to get better in the offseason, and history is on his side.

The quarterback is broader in the shoulders. His spirals are tighter - at least they were during practice Tuesday. And when he met with reporters at the NovaCare Complex afterward, he spoke with more authority.

Some of the changes are natural. Wentz is a year older, after all, a year removed from entering the Eagles' spring program as the third-string rookie rather than as the starter, which he is indisputably now. He is also coming off his first full offseason, typically the most important for NFL quarterbacks.

The additional strength, the better throwing mechanics, and his growing comfort at the podium can at least be attributed to the passage of time. But Wentz isn't one to just sit back and merely accept what often happens organically, which is that he should improve upon his first season.

He took advantage of the Eagles' strength and conditioning program, enlisted the help of noted quarterback trainers to fine-tune his delivery, and took the advice of his coaches to rest for an extended period, even though his inclination is to do something, anything, to get better.

"I've seen him sort of come in rejuvenated," Eagles coach Doug Pederson said last week. "Last year at this time he had played a bunch of football. He was coming off his world tour. He had just been drafted. Now he's had a chance to just kind of sit back and look at the regular season last year and make the necessary adjustments and corrections and learn from it."

Wentz didn't exactly tear up the defense on the first day the Eagles could conduct 11-on-11 team drills this offseason. He threw almost as many incompletions as he did successful passes, he was "sacked" several times, and one of his deep throws was intercepted. But it's difficult to watch him throw, or roll out, or connect with new receiver Alshon Jeffery and not at least understand why the Eagles are optimistic about the coming season.

It was just 20 or so throws against two-touch defense, but none of them sailed. Wentz had down-the-field passes float on him from last May until the end of the season. It didn't occur often, but it happened enough to warrant attention and the eventual tinkering with his footwork by Adam Dedeaux in February.

"It wasn't super in-depth," Wentz said of his 10 days of training in Southern California. "It's really just cleaning up some things from an efficiency standpoint. No mass overhaul, nothing really major . . . a lot of it having to do with footwork."

While both Wentz and Pederson have downplayed the alterations, saying they're invisible to the untrained eye, what is important is that they were identified and addressed.

"It's just pointing his toe, it's getting him on his target line," Pederson said. "Things that we talk about each and every day."

Quarterbacking is a fluid science. There isn't one definitive way to play the position or to throw the football. But you can't win consistently if you aren't accurate and if you toss too many interceptions. In most cases, the quarterbacks who are successful, particularly those who start from Day 1, make a leap in both regards in their second season.

But recent history suggests that it isn't as dramatic as one might assume. Before Wentz, 17 quarterbacks started in their first game - and most of their rookie season - since 2008: Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Matt Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Russell Wilson, Brandon Weeden, Ryan Tannenhill, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, E.J. Manuel, Geno Smith, Derek Carr, Jameis Winston, and Marcus Mariota.

As a group, their completion percentage increased from Year 1 to Year 2 (58.8 to 59.2), as did their touchdown-to-interception percentage (1.2 to 1.7) and their passer rating (79.9 to 84.3). Their yards per attempt, though, decreased (7.0 to 6.9).

But of the 12 quarterbacks who are still starting - Ryan, Flacco, Stafford, Bradford, Newton, Dalton, Wilson, Tannenhill, Luck, Carr, Winston, and Mariota - the jump was more significant. Their completion percentage (59.0 to 60.1), touchdown-to-interception percentage (1.4 to 2.0), and passer rating (81.3 to 87.3) had an even greater increase, and their yards per attempt remained the same (7.0).

Do the above numbers mean that Wentz, who completed 62.3 percent of his passes for 6.2 yards per attempt, and had a 1.1 touchdown-to-interception percentage and 79.3 rating, will improve upon his first season? Objectively speaking, no. And statistics are only one way to measure success.

But it's a big enough sample and the numbers support all the anecdotal evidence that playing quarterback gets easier - at least for the good-to-great ones - in their sophomore seasons, and more so as they age. Are there exceptions? Certainly. In the latter group alone, Ryan's production dipped across the board. But aside from Bradford, who played in an injury-shortened season, every other quarterback increased his rating.

And eight of the 12 - excluding Bradford, Stafford, Ryan, and Flacco - won more or as many as they lost as rookies. Winning is, ultimately, the bottom line. But Wentz's continued development this season is almost as important. That is why the Eagles invested more in the offense through free agency.

They didn't want to let the moment when Wentz will benefit from the bonus rest, when he will have his first full NFL offseason, and when he will become more of a leader, slip by without surrounding him with better pieces.

"Now it's just really focusing on these guys, and focusing on this playbook and how we can start building something special," Wentz said. "It's come very kind of naturally, organically, as a quarterback here. Being a leader kind of goes hand in hand."

The evolution is ongoing.

jmclane@phillynews.com

@Jeff_McLane

jmclane@phillynews.com @Jeff_McLane