Howie Roseman and the Eagles won the Carson Wentz trade (1/10/22)
On Christmas Day, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 22–16.
The Colts were looking like a team that no other team wanted to face off against in the playoffs.
They had the best running back in the league and some say he is the MVP of the league in Jonathan Taylor. One of the best offensive lines in the league, and a strong defensive unit led by two All-Pro’s in linebacker, Darius Leonard, and defensive tackle, DeForest Buckner.
While he wasn’t putting up the MVP-type numbers that he was back in 2017, Carson Wentz was playing well enough where the team managed to beat some of the NFL’s elite in the Bills, Cardinals, and Patriots.
At 9–6 and with only one more game left to play against the worst team in the league in the Jacksonville Jaguars, it looked as though that a playoff spot was pretty much guaranteed for them, but that was not the case, as they ended up losing by a final score of 26–11.
With their loss and a Steelers victory over the Baltimore Ravens, the Colts are eliminated from the playoffs.
And it is official: The Eagles have won the trade where they shipped Carson Wentz out to Indy for a conditional 2nd round pick (1st round pick if Wentz plays 75% or more of the snaps) and a 3rd round pick.
The Eagles decided to move on from Wentz, and replacing him was their 2nd round pick from a season ago in Jalen Hurts.
Hurts took a team that was 4–11–1 last season and was in complete dysfunction, to a team that now has a first-year head coach in Nick Sirianni and a roster loaded with young talent but inexperience, to a 9–8 record and a playoff berth.
The Colts were 11–5 last season with a 39-year-old Phillip Rivers at the helm. This season, with a better roster and what was supposed to be a better quarterback, they managed to win two fewer games over an 18 week season and miss the playoffs.
Indianapolis will have less flexibility because of the amount of money that they will be paying Wentz over the next few seasons, while the Eagles will have plenty of flexibility because of being able to get off of Wentz’s albatross contract and Hurts still being on his rookie deal.
Over the next three seasons Carson Wentz is owed:
2022: $28 million
2023: $26 million
2024: $27 million
Over the next two seasons Jalen Hurts is owed:
2022: $1 million
2023: $1 million
Add in the fact that the Colts don’t have a single 1st round pick in this year’s draft, and while the Eagles are sitting pretty with three 1st round picks, with two of them in the top sixteen.
With this being the best trade that Howie Roseman has ever made, he now has the Eagles back on track toward contention with a far younger roster to compete with.
