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The 2020 Philadelphia Eagles were a complete mess. They had injuries all over their offensive line, a terrible wide receiver core, and a ploy that did a disservice to the offense.
One of the biggest issues with the Eagles last year was the high sack rate, with Wentz having been sacked 50 times, a league-high, in just 11.5 games played. While many Indianapolis Colts fans and analysts want to attribute most of these bags to the environment around Wentz, I saw it a little differently while watching a movie.
Yes the Eagles were a mess and Wentz was put in a bad spot. However, Wentz deserves as much blame for the high layoff rate as these other factors.
In today’s movie theater, we’ll take a look at some advanced stats regarding the Eagles sack issue as I show the results of my own personal mapping of every sack allowed with Wentz under center in 2020.
Advanced statistics + Results of my mapping
I know that speaking negatively about Wentz is off limits to a lot of Colts fans this offseason, so I wanted to do my own research before diving into this piece.
What I decided to do was go back and trace every sack cleared by the Eagles with Wentz under center in 2020. I mapped each sack by time until the sack, which I think is at fault, and how many passers the defense brought. Here are the results of my mapping:
The average time between the snap and the bag was 3.65 seconds from my mapping. This number is far from official, but it does provide a baseline that there was enough time to launch most of these games. 97.8% of the sacks I listed had defense bringing in five rushers or fewer passes. I credited Carson Wentz with being at fault for 12 of 50 sacks last season (24% of sacks). That’s pretty close to the numbers Pro Football Focus (11 sacks attributed to Wentz) and Michigan Football Analytics (17 sacks more than expected) had achieved.
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What went wrong for Wentz
The two biggest concerns I saw on the movie were its inability to pull the trigger / play hero ball and poor pocket management.
We’ve been a bit spoiled with Philip Rivers in 2020 as he was in the NFL’s top six passer by completion percentage, passer rating, and yards per attempt under pressure. Rivers was masterful in diagnosing the pre-hook pressure and figuring out how to attack defenses with anticipatory throws underneath.
Wentz struggles with that and that’s one of the reasons he had a 48.3 passer rating while under pressure in 2020. He doesn’t throw the checkdown and pass it below, and chooses to play hero ball more often.
While the Heroic Field Ball is great for highlights, sometimes it’s just a matter of simple play. This game against the Pittsburgh Steelers is a prime example. The Eagles made a single pass to the runner in second and long to make it a more manageable third down. Wentz does not throw in the open back and holds the ball for the bag.
Anticipation throws have also been a struggle for Wentz in 2020. It’s a third and short and Wentz has two great options to convert on the game. He’s got pressure but he needs to be able to borrow the game. one of those roads to give his team a chance on the first try. Instead, he tucks in the ball and takes the bag.
There is a shocking statistic from last year that Wentz only launched eight drag roads throughout the season. For perspective, Michael Pittman Jr grabbed more trail roads last year than Wentz even threw. The problem with this was that they were a big part of the Eagles’ playbook. Wentz just didn’t throw them away, even when they were open.
This piece is just hard to look at. Third and eight against a blitz heavy team and Wentz has to pass that pass to his receiver, who has room to run, down the drag road. Just a bad read on a simple game.
An even greater concern than reading errors was Wentz’s poor navigation in the pocket. These issues mostly arose after week six, so the idea that Wentz just didn’t trust his offensive line could certainly be dismissed.
However, it’s a game your franchise quarterback has to play. Easy lane to cross and deliver this pass in the middle and he chooses to roll over and take the bag instead. Good blocking up front with open receivers on the pitch, Wentz just isn’t able to make the play.
The quick trigger just hasn’t been there for most of the season. A lot of the sacks I credited him were from games where I felt like he saw the right receiver to throw at, but he just didn’t throw the ball. It was a lot like watching Jacoby Brissett in 2019 in that regard.
He sees the broken cover on that fourth and three and has a second to get that ball out. He just hesitates and the result is a sack and a fumble.
Final thoughts
I want to state for the record that I’m not trying to nitpick Wentz in this article or call him a horrible quarterback by any means. It’s a legitimate concern, however. Wentz had a lot of issues up his sleeve last year and to think that those issues all go away with a better offensive line and better pattern is just plain wrong.
The promising part of it all, however, is that it’s fixable. I’m not saying it’s an easy fix, but it’s more of a mental limitation than a physical one. The key for Wentz is to trust that staff, that offensive line, and that receiving group and eliminate a lot of the hero’s ball from his game.
Carson Wentz can find success in Indianapolis. By no means will it be easy and he’s coming off a season where he was as much of a problem on the pitch as the rest of the Eagles offense. Although I am focusing on one negative point in this article, these issues can be fixed. If anyone can help him with these issues, it’s Frank Reich and the Colts.
Follow Zach on Twitter @ ZachHicks2.
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