Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

As Eagles dawdle on Carson Wentz trade, Bears grow impatient – NJ.com
The Eagles are remaining firm on their asking price for Carson Wentz, and the trade market has cooled. A person with knowledge of the Eagles’ negotiations — who was granted anonymity so he could speak freely on an impending trade — told NJ Advance Media the potential trade partners have remained “disciplined” in negotiations, unwilling to meet the Eagles’ demands. “They don’t want to give (Wentz) up for much less than (the Matthew Stafford haul),” another person with knowledge of the negotiations told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday. The Detroit Lions sent Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for the Rams’ first-round draft picks in 2022 and 2023, a third-round pick in 2021, and quarterback Jared Goff. The Indianapolis Colts have asked for additional compensation — a player, players or picks — along with Wentz in order to get close to the Eagles’ demands, according to a third person with knowledge of negotiations, who also was granted anonymity. That person said another undisclosed Eagles player has been brought up in discussions.

The Eagles are quickly losing leverage in the effort to trade Carson Wentz – PFT
Two years ago, the Eagles floated the notion that they would tag and trade Nick Foles. When they realized that no one would trade for a franchise-tagged Nick Foles. The Eagles didn’t tag him. In this case, common sense suggests that the Eagles eventually will take what they can get for Wentz. For now, the Eagles have one obvious suitor. Unless someone joins the Colts at the table, the Eagles will trade Wentz pursuant only to the terms that the Colts will offer. Or the Eagles will keep him. And they’ll live with the consequences of committing that kind of money to a guy who doesn’t want to be there. As to Foles, he could still end up back in Philly. Even if the Bears don’t trade for Wentz, they’ll likely try to move on from Foles. In the end, don’t be shocked if the Eagles ship Wentz to Indy, and bring Foles back to Philadelphia for the third time.

Opinion: What went wrong with Wentz – BGN
So, why am I even writing about this? Who cares why Carson has regressed if he’s going to be traded anyway? Well, for as much as Carson is to blame for his implosion, the front office played their own part in this as well. Howie Roseman’s absurd “quarterback factory” comment has a darker implication that the careers of these young men are little more than “assets” to be developed and potentially traded for a better return. The Eagles stressed emotional intelligence in their coach when they hired Doug and forgot to consider if they needed it in their general manager. But perhaps they have learned their lesson. Perhaps they look back on Carson’s slow-motion mental breakdown and recognize that there were red flags they missed that they need to be on the lookout for in the future. Perhaps when they move forward with Jalen Hurts (or Justin Fields?) they will take extra steps to minimize the role they could play in the potential psychological collapse of their franchise quarterback. Perhaps they will do things differently next time. But I doubt it.

Off Day Debrief #23: SB LV Champion Ronald Jones + Carson Wentz rumor‪s‬ – The SB Nation NFL Show
Rob “Stats” Guerrera (Niners Nation) & Brandon Lee Gowton (Bleeding Green Nation) are joined by Buccaneers RB Ronald Jones! Plus, we dive into the latest rumors involving Eagles’ QB Carson Wentz. Was Antoine Winfield Jr. right to throw the deuces in Tyreek Hill’s face? Did Jones hear any trash talk between Brady and Tyrann Mathieu? Will he guarantee a Buccaneers championship next season? RIP to Marty Schottenheimer, one of the NFL’s most underrated coaches. Carson Wentz vs. the field of available QBs. Patrick Mahomes has surgery on his bum toe.

Report: Colts are the ‘One Obvious Suitor’ for Eagles QB Carson Wentz—as Philadelphia is ‘Losing Leverage’ – Stampede Blue
As noted, that doesn’t mean that Wentz won’t eventually become a Colt, but it will be much more on Indianapolis’ own terms than the reported ridiculous asking price currently being floated around in the league rumor mill. At this point, the Eagles will either have to awkwardly keep Wentz around with big money owed to him—including a $10M roster bonus due on the 3rd day of the new league year, when neither side wants to continue the rocky relationship any longer—or Philly just might have to give into the Colts’ more frugal trade offer to finally move on. It’s a competitive game of tug-of-war, but the Colts currently have all of the leverage.

What’s holding up a Wentz trade? – Windy City Gridiron
The longer this plays out the less leverage the Eagles have, because Wentz is due a roster bonus mid March. There’s likley a top offer in now, but Philly is holding out for more. Insiders all believe a Wentz trade is still inevitable, so at this point it’s about which team will give in first. All things being close to equal, the Eagles would probably want to ship Wentz to the AFC, so the Bears may need to make sure there’s no doubt with what they offer if they truly believe Wentz is their best option at quarterback.

Ranking the eight last-place NFL teams by their chances to go from worst to first in 2021 – PFF
The second surprise came in the form of Carson Wentz’s fall from grace. Wentz had struggled to live up to his near-MVP campaign in 2017 in subsequent seasons, but he still profiled as a middle-of-the-pack option in each of 2018 and 2019. In 2020, however, Wentz opened the year with three straight sub-60.0 PFF grades and continually put the ball in harm’s way. Despite starting just 12 games, Wentz’s 24 turnover-worthy plays were the most in the NFL. All signs now point to his time in Philadelphia coming to an end.

Trading Carson Wentz could go down as one of the greatest personnel blunders in sports history, and some people don’t get it – Inquirer
Therein lies the crux of the matter. Even if everything works out entirely in the Eagles’ favor, it will still work out to nothing less than a travesty. Jeffrey Lurie could spend the rest of his life doing the Scrooge McDuck backstroke through a vault of first-round picks and he will still go down as the man who oversaw the most mismanaged and embarrassing chapter in the history of his organization. Wentz could retire from football with a zero quarterback rating and his legacy would still regard him first as the unwitting whistleblower who exposed the depths of the Eagles’ dysfunction.

The Ringer’s Way-Too-Early 2021 NFL Power Rankings – The Ringer
25. Philadelphia Eagles. I’m just going to assume that the Eagles trade Carson Wentz at some point in the next few weeks or months, and that Jalen Hurts takes over as the presumptive starter. That should help the team’s offense become a little more dynamic, but Philly’s got plenty of other issues to fix. The Eagles are currently projected to come in $49 million over the cap next year (second worst) and may be headed toward some big roster purges and a rebuilding season under new head coach Nick Sirianni.

Eagles free agency primer: ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for 25 Eagles and 9 targets to watch – The Athletic
Derek Barnett (25) — Wulf: Yes. The Eagles exercised Barnett’s $10.05 million option, but it’s not guaranteed and they can’t afford to carry him with that cap number in 2021. It’s possible they’ll simply release him and clear the full amount from their cap. But a rebuilding team cannot be in the business of letting go of one of its very few starting-caliber young players. I expect the Eagles to sign Barnett to a back-loaded extension that lowers his 2020 cap hit and guarantees an average annual value raise for three or four seasons. — Berman: Yes: It doesn’t make sense to bring back Barnett at the fifth-year option price, but they should give him an extension that lowers his 2021 cap number. He turns 25 in June and is one of the few potential building blocks on the roster. The valuation is still the big question, though.

Quantifying Quarterbacks: Justin Fields – Rotoworld
Justin Fields’ target area chart shows a passer who did not need throws gifted to him. Just 13.39% of his throws were at or behind the line of scrimmage, which would have been lower than every 2020 quarterback except for Joe Burrow. Fields substituted those free throws behind the line of scrimmage for standard quick game concepts from shotgun. In fact, Fields’ 21.73% target rate to the 6-10 yard area is higher than every 2020 QB, coming in about six percentage points higher than last year’s class average. Outs, curls, and slants — all of which are timing-based routes in the 6-10 yard area that want to be thrown right off the top of the drop back — are right in Fields’ wheelhouse as a sharp, accurate passer. While being a high-volume passer to that area is not necessarily sexy, it’s encouraging to see an offense give freedom to their QB to throw those concepts instead of the easier, lower-ceiling screens and RPOs (run-pass options), especially when Fields’ target rates to every section beyond 10 yards is right around average. He was not really skimping out on tougher throws; he was just throwing fewer of the easiest concepts in the playbook. The other number of note here is Fields’ blatant drop rate. At just over 5%, Fields dealt with blatant drops at about 2% of a higher clip than last year’s average. His 5.28% clip would have been worse than everyone in last year’s class besides Jacob Eason, whose receivers at Washington were notorious for the dropsies. To be clear, the Ohio State receiving corps was clearly better than Washington’s and got open far more often, but Fields was putting almost every throw on the money and was let down by his teammates a bit more often than the average QB.

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