To Bench Or Not To Bench

Carson Wentz is an incredibly talented quarterback. He’s also human. That means that he’s not always going to be at his best. There are times when he is going to struggle. We’re seeing far too much of that in 2020.

Some have brought up the idea of Doug Pederson benching his star QB. When a player is struggling, sometimes the smart move is to sit them down.

Doug Pederson said he won’t bench Wentz. He wants Wentz to work through his problems. Getting back key players around him should take pressure off Wentz and help him to play better. At least that’s the theory.

So let’s talk about whether Pederson should bench Wentz. Would that be a good idea?

Quarterback is the most important position in football. You have to treat it and the men who play it differently than everything else. This isn’t like benching your left guard or running back or safety.

When you bench a QB, that can affect the player for the rest of his career. It can permanently change the relationship between the QB and the coach. This isn’t a decision you make lightly. You only make this move when things are desperate.

It is one thing to pull a QB out of a blowout loss. You might see your guy taking a pounding and decide enough is enough. QB’s don’t like that, but it is very different from pulling them out of a close game or sitting them from a start. That’s when you can really affect a player’s confidence.

Are you really going to pull Wentz out when the team is down 9-7 at halftime? You go in make adjustments and see what happens in the second half. Wentz led the team on a TD drive in the mid-third that gave the Eagles the lead for good. There wasn’t a clear-cut time in that game that made any sense.

You could sit Wentz for the upcoming game with the Giants. Let him see how Jalen Hurts does running the team. But what if Hurts plays like a rookie and struggles? What if he turns the ball over multiple times? Did you really change anything with Wentz?

Wentz is struggling. The Eagles are having a down season, in part because of Wentz. But this is an anomaly. Wentz played some of his best football to close out the 2019 season. 2020 is just a weird year, for a variety of reasons. Wentz is still one of the most talented QBs in the league. You need to let him play his way through this.

Even though the Eagles are in first place, I consider this a lost season. This is the year you leave Wentz in and let him work through his issues. The number one priority for the rest of this season and the offseason is getting Wentz fixed.

If I thought this team had a chance to make some noise in the playoffs, I might feel differently. The Eagles struggled to beat a bad Dallas team with a rookie QB on Sunday night. The Eagles should improve as some players return, but this is a flawed team and will be all season long.

The only real reason to sit Wentz would be if you thought playing behind a makeshift OL and with marginal skill players would create bad habits that might set in permanently. My guess is that Pederson sees things differently, with players starting to return. He wants Wentz to get experience playing with Travis Fulgham, Jalen Reagor, John Hightower and other young skill players.

This is the year to learn on the job. Hopefully that will pay off with better results in the future, whether that is late this season or in future seasons.

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The trade deadline came and went. No moves for the Eagles.

That was the smart thing to do. This wasn’t the year to try and bring in a player. The Eagles need all their picks for the next couple of drafts.

As far as trading vets, injuries to Zach Ertz and DeSean Jackson killed that. Both might have been shopped if they were healthy.

I don’t think any team was going to overpay for veteran help this year with all the uncertainty out there. Best just to keep your veterans and let things play out this season.

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The Eagles did lose one player. Houston signed QB Josh McCown. Good for Josh.

No idea if the Eagles will look to add a QB to the practice squad. They signed TE Jason Croom for now, but might want another insurance QB once they’ve had a chance to look around and see what’s out there.

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