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WASTEAM is back at it with Carson Wentz

Perennial Offseason Super Bowl contenders

NFL: JAN 09 Colts at Jaguars Photo by Icon Sportswire

Just when we thought we were done with him, Carson Wentz has been traded to the Washington Football Team Commanders, putting him back in the NFC East. When you stop and think about it, Washington is the perfect destination for him. Not for any positive reasons mind you, but because it shows that while Dan Snyder/WASTEAM’s days of big free agent spending are at least for now in the past, they still have ways to amuse us with their ineptitude.

The Colts were publicly done with Wentz

The day before the Wentz trade the Broncos traded for Russell Wilson. While the trade was not a surprise, it also wasn’t completely expected as the Seahawks had been pretty firm publicly that they weren’t interested in trading him. Wilson staying in Seattle for this season seemed a realistic outcome right until the moment he was traded.

Meanwhile the Colts all but literally said “we are done with this guy.” Jim Irsay posted a weird video filmed in front of an operating jet engine that was a thinly veiled shot at Wentz. (Adding to the weirdness of the clip, it was filmed at night but posted during daylight, so Irsay slept on it and still thought it was a good idea.)

At the Combine Chris Ballard and Frank Reich admitted they hadn’t yet made a decision on if they wanted to keep him. Between these, several Colts reporters said it wasn’t out of the question that Indy would simply outright release him.

WASTEAM decided this was the guy they wanted, and that they’d give up multiple quality picks for him.

Ron Rivera, COVID, and coachability

Entering 2021 training camp, WASTEAM was the least vaccinated team in the league, which was important because as a cancer survivor who is immunodeficient Ron Rivera is at high risk of contracting COVID. The team was so far behind the rest of the league in getting vaccinated that at a press conference he pleaded with his players to get vaccinated. Some listened and the team’s rate did go up. But not every bought in, most notably Montez Sweat, who later apparently became patient zero in a COVID outbreak among the team that forced their game against the Eagles to be moved to a Tuesday.

So then the team went out and traded for an unvaccinated QB who would have had to miss a game if the league hadn’t altered its COVID protocols at the last minute, and who has been called by his own teammates someone who is not a team player, and who has had his leadership and ability to accept coaching criticism questioned by two teams.

There is no worse off the field head coach/QB fit than this.

Snap count watch is back!

Last year we selfishly wanted Wentz to hit his snap count threshold so that the Eagles would get a first round pick, but have Wentz be bad enough that the pick wouldn’t be in the 20s. The 16th overall pick was a pretty good outcome.

This year we selfishly want Wentz to hit his snap count threshold because WASTEAM giving up a better pick is funny, but have Wentz be bad enough that WASTEAM is still stuck in QB purgatory.

WASTEAM is worse than Indy, who were a “perfect match”

Much was made about how great a fit the Colts were for Wentz. Frank Reich was the perfect coach for him and the rest of the roster was so good he would bounce back. The Colts missed the playoffs behind a running back who was a legitimate MVP candidate, the team had seven Pro Bowlers. Washington’s roster is worse than the Colts, and gone is the advantage of the head coach and QB having previously worked together. If Wentz dragged down a team that was a “perfect match” how badly will it go with a team that is clearly worse?

WASTEAM plays the Colts this year

The thought of Wentz playing the Eagles twice a season is funny enough, but he also gets to play the Colts in Indianapolis! Added bonus, WASTEAM also plays against Doug Pederson and the Jaguars—which doubles as both his ex-coach and the team that eliminated him from the playoffs last year. Washington also plays the Browns, who gave up the pick the Eagles used to select him; the Packers, who Wentz was benched against; and the Falcons and Vikings, who the Eagles beat in the playoffs without Wentz en route to winning the Super Bowl; and the Bears, who currently have Nick Foles. All that is missing from the “Carson Wentz, this is your life” tour are the Rams, who he was injured against, the Saints, who Nick Foles beat in his place in 2018, and the Patriots. Schedule makers do this right, and give us one of these games every other week.

FedEx is usually half full of Eagles fans

Similar to how everyone is wondering how Ben Simmons will respond to playing in Philly and vice versa, there will be these same questions for Wentz and the Eagles. And similar to Simmons in Brooklyn, Wentz plays for a team that isn’t a long commute and that routinely sees fans of opposing teams in attendance. Eagles games at FedEx Field were already half filled with Eagles fans, now there is even more reason to take the trek to Maryland.

The Wentz nugget from earlier that day

A few hours before the Wentz trade broke, Jeff McLane had an item highlighting the intangibles that the Eagles love about Jalen Hurts. It compared him to his predecessor Wentz, who McLane reported did not handle the team’s success without him:

Sometime before the championship game, Wentz voiced his displeasure with the Eagles’ success to a group of other injured players, sources with direct knowledge of the incident said. One of the players immediately confronted him and the two eventually had to be separated.

You can find the team’s end of season IR list here, you can come to your own conclusion as to who did the separating and who did the engaging.

That shortly after the latest “Carson Wentz is a bad teammate” nugget dropped, the trade broke. The timing could not be any better.

Sam Bradford 2.0

Carson Wentz getting jobs because the idea of Carson Wentz yet constantly changing teams because the reality of Carson Wentz is mediocre sounds a lot like how teams kept giving Sam Bradford a chance.

Well there you go. Sam Bradford didn’t want to be in the league if he wasn’t starting, I wonder if Carson Wentz will have the same attitude. (He will.)

This is relevant again

For context, WASTEAM tweeted that when the Eagles signed Tim Tebow.

WASTEAM’s Super Bowl odds went DOWN

LOL

WASTEAM gonna WASTEAM

They can change the name. They can change the coach. They can change the front office. They can change the leadership to the owner’s wife. But as long as Dan Snyder owns the team, WASTEAM will always be who they are. This trade just feels right. It feels so Washington.

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