Timeline of Carson Wentz’s crazy years with the Eagles

The Eagles will face Carson Wentz for the first time as an opponent when they visit Washington on Sunday. Wentz has been both excellent and erratic in his first two starts with the Commanders (1-1). Sound familiar?

Here’s a timeline of Wentz’s ups and downs in his five seasons with the Eagles.

Feb. 27, 2016: Wentz has an impressive day at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. “I don’t think it’s a superstar class, but I really liked what I saw from Carson Wentz,” Hall of Fame quarterback and NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner said that day. “I thought he looked the best of all the quarterbacks out here.”

March 30, 2016: Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, general manager Howie Roseman, and coach Doug Pederson have dinner with Wentz in Fargo, N.D., which Birds fan John Pisula delightfully shares on social media.

“I didn’t want to blow up their spot, but this was like the coolest thing I’d ever done,” Pisula told The Inquirer in 2016. “It’s something I can tell my kids about . . . especially if Carson is the quarterback who leads us to a few Super Bowls.”

Wentz dines with Eagles’ brass.

April 20, 2016: Three weeks later, Roseman trades two first-round picks, as well as second-, third- and fourth-rounders to Cleveland to move up from No. 8 to No. 2. All intel was that the Rams, who just moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles, would take University of California quarterback Jared Goff with the No. 1 overall pick. “We’re very sure that we’re going to get the player that we want,” Roseman said.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Commanders predictions: Our beat writers make their picks for Week 3 vs. Carson Wentz

April 28, 2016: Wentz, from North Dakota State, becomes the highest-drafted player from an FCS school when the Eagles select him with the No. 2 overall pick. “You want to come in and hopefully call Philadelphia my home for a long time,” Wentz said. “And hopefully win a lot of games, hopefully win Super Bowls. You’ve got to take it one day at a time, but I’m going to hold myself to high expectations.”

May 9, 2016: Incumbent Eagles starting quarterback Sam Bradford, who demanded a trade and skipped team activities following Wentz’s drafting, returns to the club.

May 12, 2016: Wentz signs a four-year contract worth $26.7 million (including a $17.6 million signing bonus).

June 3, 2016: Following a minicamp, Pederson says Bradford is the starting quarterback. For now, at least.

July 25, 2016: Training camp begins. The plan is for Wentz to be inactive on game days when the season begins on Sept. 11.

» READ MORE: ‘He’s still got his goods’: Eagles chatty about Carson Wentz’s tendencies as the Commanders loom

Aug. 11, 2016: The rookie sees his first NFL action late in the first half of a preseason game against Tampa Bay as chants of “We Want Wentz” ring throughout Lincoln Financial Field.

Aug. 13, 2016: The Eagles announce that Wentz sustained a hairline rib fracture in the Buccaneers game and they hope to have him back before the end of the preseason. But that didn’t happen.

Aug. 30, 2016: About 1,200 miles away from Philadelphia, Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffers a knee injury during a practice. Five days later, when it’s confirmed Bridgewater was out for the season, Roseman trades Bradford to the Vikings for a first-round pick in 2017 (which ended up being Derek Barnett). The Eagles had dealt their own 2017 first-round pick four months earlier to move up to get Wentz.

Sept. 4, 2016: Shortly after Bradford is traded, Pederson calls Wentz and tells him he is the starter. It will be a baptism by fire for the rookie coach and the rookie quarterback.

Sept. 11, 2016: Wentz throws two touchdown passes in a thorough 29-14 win over visiting Cleveland in his first career regular-season game.

» READ MORE: Eagles don’t resent Carson Wentz, but you can | Marcus Hayes

Sept. 25, 2016: Completes nearly 75% of his passes (23 of 31) for two touchdowns and no interceptions in a rollicking 34-3 win over Pittsburgh. It’s the Eagles’ largest win over the Steelers in 51 years.

Jan. 1, 2017: Wentz sets the NFL single-season rookie record for completions (379) in a win over Dallas. The quarterback who held the mark? Bradford. (Justin Herbert surpassed them both in 2020 with 396.) Wentz starts all 16 games as the Eagles go 7-9. There is reason for optimism.

March 16, 2017: Eagles sign Nick Foles to replace Chase Daniel as Wentz’s backup.

Sept. 10, 2017: Wentz connects with Nelson Agholor on a 58-yard pass less than four minutes into the season opener in Washington. It is the first highlight of what will be an historic season.

Oct. 8, 2017: Throws a career-high four touchdown passes in a win over Arizona, the first of four such games this season.

Dec. 10, 2017: Wentz and Goff are dueling in their first career matchup, but Wentz’s day ends early when he is sandwiched by L.A. defenders Mark Barron and Morgan Fox. Wentz stays in the game for one more play, tossing a short touchdown to Alshon Jeffery, the 33rd TD pass of the season for Wentz, breaking Sonny Jurgensen’s team record set 56 years ago. Foles relieves Wentz and leads the Eagles to a win. The Birds move to 11-2 and clinch the NFC East.

Dec. 11, 2017: Pederson says Wentz has a torn ACL and is done for the rest of the season. Offensive coordinator Frank Reich says Foles, who had started 36 games in his career at that point, is “very, very comfortable in his own skin, and is very confident in his own abilities and is an excellent quarterback. And he exudes that confidence, where the guys on this team see that, they feel that.”

Feb. 4, 2018: Foles throws for 373 yards and three touchdowns, and catches a touchdown on fourth-and-goal in one of the most famous plays in league history as the Eagles surprise the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. Foles is named the game’s MVP.

Sept. 23, 2018: After missing the first two games, Wentz leads the Eagles to a four-point win over the Colts in Week 3. He is sacked five times, a distressing omen.

Nov. 18, 2018: Wentz throws three interceptions and is sacked three times in a 48-7 loss to the Saints, the most lopsided loss ever by a defending Super Bowl champion.

Dec. 14, 2018: Wentz’s season is again suddenly cut short by a stress-fractured vertebra that Pederson says “evolved over time.” The Eagles are 5-6 with Wentz and 6-7 overall.

Dec. 30, 2018: The Eagles win their third straight with Foles as the starter and sneak into the playoffs with some help from the Bears, whom they will upset in the first round a week later.

Jan. 14, 2019: A day after the season ends in New Orleans, and with it fairly obvious Foles will not be returning, The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane writes: “Wentz should have a long enough career and multiple opportunities, but the clock on accomplishing postseason goals is seemingly ticking for the first time in his career.”

March 13, 2019: Foles, 30, is declared a free agent. He signs with Jacksonville the next day.

June 6, 2019: Wentz, 26, signs a four-year contract extension for $128 million with a then-record $107 million guaranteed. “It means the world to me,” Wentz said in a statement. “From the moment I got drafted here, I knew this place was special. I knew they had the most passionate fans in the world in all of sports, and I knew we had the opportunity to build something truly special. To be cemented here for this much longer means the world to me.”

Sept. 26, 2019: Completes just 16 passes, but three are touchdowns as the Eagles surprise Green Bay with a 34-27 Thursday night win to stop a two-game losing streak. Wentz will throw for more than 4,000 yards on the season despite not having a true No. 1 wide receiver.

» READ MORE: Will Temple and Penn State cover? Are the Eagles in a letdown spot? Here's this week's Philly Special parlay.

Dec. 15, 2019: For the second consecutive week, Wentz rallies the Eagles in the fourth quarter for a key victory (even if it’s against 3-10 Washington). The Eagles close the season with two more wins over division rivals with Wentz leading them to their second division title in three years. They host dangerous Seattle in the wild-card round.

Jan. 5, 2020: It’s not often a franchise quarterback makes his playoff debut two years after he puts his team in position to make a Super Bowl run, but Wentz finally plays in a postseason game. He sustains a concussion on a borderline hit from Jadeveon Clowney and has to leave in the first quarter. Journeyman Josh McCown comes in, but can’t get the Eagles into the end zone in the dismal 17-9 loss.

April 24, 2020: The Eagles select Jalen Hurts in the second round of the draft, which is held virtually due to the nationwide shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 27, 2020: Wentz’s wife gives birth to their first child, daughter Hadley Jayne.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, Commanders’ Carson Wentz proclaim ‘mutual respect’

Oct. 18, 2020: The Eagles fall to 1-4-1 after a loss punctuated by a bungled two-point conversion attempt that could have tied it with two minutes left in regulation. About the only bright spot is that only 6,000 fans are allowed into the Linc because of pandemic restrictions.

Dec. 6, 2020: Wentz gets benched for Hurts in the third quarter of a loss in Green Bay that drops the Eagles to 3-8-1. He finishes the season with 16 TD passes, 15 interceptions and is sacked 50 times in 12 games. He never plays for the Eagles again.

December 2020: ESPN reports that Wentz has no interest in competing with Hurts for the starting job in 2021 and instead wants to be traded.

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts owns third-shortest odds to win NFL MVP after stellar start to season

Jan. 7, 2021: As it becomes obvious the end is near, Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes writes, “The franchise didn’t fail Wentz. It was the other way around.”

Jan. 11, 2021: Roseman fires Pederson.

March 17, 2021: Five years after that dinner in Fargo, N.D., Roseman trades Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts. His reunion with Reich, now the Colts’ head coach, is thought to be an encouraging sign that Wentz can get his career back on track. The Colts, however, also sour on Wentz and trade him to Washington a year later.

» READ MORE: Inside Carson Wentz’s turbulent season and the forces behind his regression (from January 2021)

Inquirer Eagles beat reporters EJ Smith and Josh Tolentino preview the team’s Week 3 game against the Washington Commanders and Carson Wentz. Watch at Inquirer.com/EaglesGameday