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Carson Wentz Showed Flashes in His Eagles Preseason Debut

Adrian Fedkiw|

Carson Wentz came in earlier than planned, although the Philadelphia faithful wouldn’t have minded if he had entered the game even sooner. They were chanting “We Want Wentz” several series prior to when he took the field.

And when he finally did, Wentz received a resounding ovation.

What followed was an up-and-down performance which showed flashes of why he was drafted No. 2 overall.

Wentz completed 12-of-24 passes for 89 yards and an interception to go along with 15 yards rushing on three carries in his NFL preseason debut, and the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17-9 on Thursday night.

Wentz, who was expected to make his debut at the start of the third quarter, entered the game with less than two minutes left in the opening half because head coach Doug Pederson wanted to see him run the two-minute drill. Although the numbers may indicate otherwise, I thought it was a solid debut for the North Dakota State product. His ball placement was good despite some errant ones which sailed on him. He played with calmness, poise and made smart decisions. Wentz’s accuracy and zip on the move was on full display.

Let’s take a look at some clips from the game. Here’s Wentz’s first NFL throw, which was high to Nelson Agholor along the right sideline. It’s not like Wentz wasn’t hyped up or anything.

Wentz’s first completion was a beauty. He stepped up in the pocket, kept his eyes downfield and flipped the pass to Zach Ertz along the right seam.

This was Wentz’s best throw of the night. He recognized the rusher immediately, escaped the pocket and delivered an accurate strike with plenty of velocity on it. People may not realize how difficult that throw was, but Wentz made it look routine.

It was the little things which impressed me about Wentz too, like this play here. He gets a low snap, but still has the awareness to pick it up, scramble to his right and throw it away to prevent a huge loss.

Wentz took off and ran a few times, including on this occasion where he got flushed to his right and scampered for nine yards before sliding down safely. He can really move for a man his size.

I wasn’t a fan of this call from Pederson. It’s the preseason, calling a zone read isn’t necessary. My heart was in my throat for a second when I saw Wentz take a hit to the knees and do a full somersault before hitting the ground. Not cool Doug.

His lone interception came when the pocket collapsed and he got hit as he threw, resulting into a sailing toss that landed right into the arms of Isaiah Johnson for the easy pick.

Although Wentz completed just 50 percent of his passes, that number and his yards total would’ve been higher had he gotten more help from his receivers. I counted at least four drops, including this one by T.J. Graham.

Let’s move onto Jalen Mills. He was the player I was most looking forward to see not named Wentz and he was pretty much as expected, although I did think he’d be a bit better. The seventh-round rookie has gotten a lot of hype and praise during the spring and Training Camp and rightfully so, the Eagles could have themselves a future starter which they plucked late. But Thursday night proved why the expectations needed to be tempered. There’s going to be growing pains, especially for a rookie cornerback. I’m going to be doing a post in a few days on Mills’ performance once the game tape comes out because it is tough to gauge how he’s really doing with the angle the television uses. The All-22 film will allow me to see everything.

He got beat on this deep ball by Mike Evans, which quite frankly you should expect. Mills was a bit fortunate he wasn’t called for a penalty for the grab.

This was the play where Mills looked silly. Russell Shepard created a lot of separation on the deep comeback and then Mills failed to take the proper angle to him before whiffing on a flailing tackle attempt. Not taking the proper angle was the biggest weakness I saw in Mills’ LSU tape.

All negativity aside, I like the feistiness and aggressiveness Mills plays with. He did a solid job in coverage on this instance, able to step in front of the receiver on an in-breaking route.

With the Eagles’ lack of viable options at receiver, I believe we’ll see a lot of the three tight end sets that the Chiefs liked to use in Kansas City last year. Ertz has never been known as the best pass blocker, but his run blocking has improved over the years and is underrated in that area. He looked exceptional as a run blocker on Thursday.

Playing alongside Fletcher Cox, we might be seeing a lot of this from Bennie Logan this season.

The Eagles wide receivers were putrid Thursday. With Jordan Matthews out, it gave them a chance to emerge and show the coaching staff some potential, but it was more of the same from last season. Josh Huff is still fumbling the ball and Agholor couldn’t do anything right. He struggled to gain separation, didn’t hang onto the ball and failed to even block. Rueben Randle and Graham dropped the ball too and I didn’t hear a peep out of Chris Givens. Tampa Bay had several coverage sacks due to the Eagles’ inability to get open.

Some under-the-radar names who made some plays against the Bucs. Josh Andrews was looking really sharp before departing with an ankle injury.

Steven Means showcased his quickness, balance and pass rushing ability. Check out the quick spin before closing in on Mike Glennon, who threw an interception to Chris Maragos.

Wentz’s teammate at North Dakota State, C.J. Smith, made a couple nice plays in the second half, including this breakup here.

The Eagles next play Thursday night against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

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