Chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta said that the Browns were motivated to trade the pick and stick with Robert Griffin III because they didn’t envision Wentz developing into a top 20 National Football League quarterback at any point.
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The Browns, of course, were in a position to take Wentz at No. 2 overall in April’s draft but chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta went to his baseball roots and advocated collecting assets instead of trying to solve the problem at game’s most important position in Cleveland, something the Browns haven’t been able to do since their reincarnation in 1999.
“Now”, Wentz said Monday, “it’s down to business”.
“I think Carson Wentz can be whatever he wants to be”, Browns head coach Hue Jackson said during a Wednesday conference call with Eagles media. He instills confidence in me. It’s something that we believe in.
“We just felt so comfortable at the Eagles to make the moves to go get Carson Wentz and felt very strong about the way we evaluated, just looking at everything and exhausting everything”.
Wentz took just 39 snaps in the preseason, completing 12 of 24 passes for 89 yards and an interception before suffering a hairline fracture in his ribs that’s forced him to miss the team’s final three preseason games.
With Wentz starting at quarterback this year, it could be a long season in Philadelphia. All the pieces are here for him to be successful and for us to win some games.”But how many?” That includes Daniel, whom Wentz passed on the depth chart when Bradford was traded.
Daniel was then asked if he feels like Pederson had been honest with him about his chances to start when he signed. Of the last 11 quarterbacks drafted in the top three, nine of them started Week 1 of their rookie seasons.
“It was nearly like a relief, a weight, a burden off your shoulders”, Pederson said this week.
“Just excited to go out and play with these guys”, Griffin said. “But believe me, it’s not going to get in the way of my preparation”.
Neither can Wentz’s teammates.
Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta told ESPN.com in July the team didn’t draft a quarterback – he didn’t mention Wentz by name – because it didn’t consider any player in this draft to be “good enough to be a top 20 quarterback in the National Football League”.
With the move, the Eagles have converted a quarterback logjam into a much more simple premise: rookie starter and veteran backup. “But at the end of the day, it’s not all about Carson either”.
Wentz and the rest of the eagles will take to the field this Sunday at noon to host the Browns.
He also needs to get familiar with the starting offense. “We’ve got to elevate our play around him”.
The Broncos, plus other teams, will come calling to Philadelphia about their plans for Chase Daniel.
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“You inherit the pressure. To me, this is just the beginning of the new normal”. “The biggest thing for any quarterback, particularly a rookie quarterback, in the first game is how well you can control your emotions early in the football game and the nervousness and all of that and just kind of settle into the football game”. I will learn from my mistakes and keep getting better.
