The strange carousel of Carson Wentz becoming the guy in Philadelphia

For the Philadelphia Eagles, everything was so different just a week ago.

It has been a tumultuous summer for the team in regards to sorting out would be the lead signal caller when week one of the 2016 season came around, and beyond. The position has been completely overhauled since the close of business for the 2015 season, which saw the Eagles limp to an awkward 7-9 record, which was still good for a second place finish in a downtrodden year for the NFC East as a whole.

Gone were both Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez, and the team was prepared to embark on a new direction at quarterback, just a season after acquiring Bradford. To first solve the issue, former Kansas City Chiefs and New Orleans Saint Chase Daniel was acquired, so briefly it was believed he would get his first shot at starting as a pro. Yet after a prolonged tug of war between the two sides, Bradford re-upped with the Eagles on a 2-year deal, so now it appeared the two former Big 12 signal callers would be the top options for the team and all was settled at QB.

Wrong. The following month, the team traded into the second spot in the NFL Draft, with rumored eyes on whichever quarterback the Los Angeles Rams decided not to take between Cal’s Jared Goff and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz. But why do this? Taking a young quarterback early is far from a rare trend in pro football, but to add one to a mix that was already unsettled with two other recently acquired signal callers was odd.

But odd became reality when Wentz was indeed made the second pick in the draft, and one the Eagles swapped out five overall picks to land as well. Gaining the clear sense of danger any quarterback feels when his team moves up to grab a younger signal caller, Bradford was obviously not pleased with this. Claiming that he was 'deceived' in what his role would be in coming back to Philly, he held out of preseason minicamps in protest. He eventually dropped his protest in May and all seemed well... yet again, for the time being.

The quarterback rumor mill went red hot at the end of last week when Minnesota Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater severely injured his left knee and immediately declared out for the season. And while many names were rumored to potentially be options for the Vikings to solve their sudden quarterback woes, it was yet another stunning announcement involving Eagle quarterbacks when Bradford was traded for a first round pick (amazingly, for the second time in as many years) to the Vikings. And when the dust settled from this move, the man that stood on the other side having taken as improbable of a journey to becoming a week one starter as any player in football, stood in place ready to seize the opportunity: Carson Wentz.

• So, here’s the scorecard for those keeping up:
• Sam Bradford from St. Louis to Philadelphia
• Mark Sanchez from Philadelphia to Denver (to subsequently released and then to Dallas)
• Chase Daniel from free agency to Philly
• Sam Bradford resigns in Philly
• Carson Wentz drafted by Philly, followed by Bradford hold out
• Bradford returns to camp, wins starting job, traded to Minnesota
• Wentz gets starting job over Daniel, who himself was rumored to start at the beginning of the spring.

All good? Keeping up? Good, because unfortunately, the oddity of the road to Wentzville did not end there. Ironically, he will be popping his pro football cherry against the same team that passed on the scenario to draft him at all in the first place: the Cleveland Browns.

However, it is not so much happenstance that Cleveland ended up facing the past upon second pick, as it was revealed to be intention. So why did the Browns, a team that has QB turnover like none other, decide to pass on the opportunity to select the player who the Eagles jumped up the draft to fill their ever-popular ‘quarterback of the future’ role for a reclamation effort with RGIII? According to Browns’ chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, it was because they simply did not think he was that good.

Speaking to Tony Grossi of ESPN, DePodesta made it clear that the club did not believe that Wentz had what took to become a top-tier signal caller, so they did what they could get the most of the pick from a team that would take the gamble on the former North Dakota State star. While he did not go as far to bury Wentz as a player, he made it clear that he felt that the second slot in the Draft was too high for him to go. DePodesta explained:

“I think the hardest part, and where we have to stay the most disciplined, as much as you want a player, you can’t invent him if he doesn’t exist. In a given year, there may be two or three NFL-ready quarterbacks at the college level. In another year there may literally be zero. There just may not be anybody in that year who’s good enough to be a top 20 quarterback in the NFL.”

Although packed nicely in the context of looking at the field as a whole, DePodestra basically came out and said that the club does not only not believe that Wentz is who the Eagles decided him to be, they barely believe him to be worth a pick in the first round as a whole. In an effort to further drive the point home, DePodestra also spoke to the overall industry trend of risking it for a franchise quarterback, and why that was a risk he was not interested in for Wentz, Goff or any other available collegiate arm:

“Even though you have a desperate need for one, you have to resist the temptation of taking that guy just because you have a need. If you don’t believe he’s one of those 20 guys at the end of the day. I think that’s the hardest part, just maintaining your discipline because you have the need. That’s what we did this year.”

Ultimately, that is the right practice and perhaps that is what the Browns were best served in doing. But the question needs to be asked: is it really an insult for the Browns to pass on you as a quarterback, or is it a blessing in disguise? The answer will sort itself out in a very direct fashion on Sunday afternoon, but no matter how the immediate outcome plays, the hope in Philly has to be that an answer is finally carved out in what is without a doubt the oddest quarterback carousel the NFL has seen in a long time.