Carson Wentz’s latest injury could cost the Eagles a first-round draft pick from the Colts next year
Wentz has a long history of injuries, three of which ended his seasons for the Eagles.
The first-round pick the Eagles are hoping to get from the Indianapolis Colts as part of the Carson Wentz trade could be in jeopardy.
The oft-injured Wentz is injured again. He hurt his left foot in a training camp practice late last week and had surgery to repair it on Monday. Colts coach Frank Reich said he will be out 5 to 12 weeks.
The Eagles received a third-round pick in this year’s draft and a conditional second-round rounder in 2022 that would become a first-round pick if Wentz takes 75% of the Colts’ offensive snaps this season or 70% if they make the playoffs.
That seemed a good bet until Wentz got hurt again. If he ends up returning in five weeks, he’d be back right before the start of the season and might not miss any time.
But if he were out 12 weeks, he wouldn’t be returning until late October and would miss the Colts first seven games. Even with the NFL adding a 17th game this season, it would be next to impossible for Wentz to play 70% of the Colts’ snaps.
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The Eagles currently have two first-round picks next year -- their own and one they got in a trade with Miami. The Colts pick would give them three.
Given Wentz’s injury history, and given that Reich said this latest injury actually may have been triggered by an old injury that occurred when he was in high school, the Colts might be reluctant to rush Wentz back.
With Wentz out, the Colts’ No. 1 quarterback at the moment is 2020 fourth-round pick Jacob Eason, who was the team’s No. 3 quarterback last year behind starter Philip Rivers and Jacoby Brissett. He didn’t play a snap as a rookie. Rivers retired and Brissett signed with the Miami Dolphins.
Wentz, who was taken by the Eagles with the second overall pick in the 2016 draft, has been dogged by injuries his entire career.
He suffered a concussion in the first quarter of the Eagles’ first-round playoff loss to Seattle in 2019. He missed the final five regular-season games in 2018, as well as their two playoff games, with a broken bone in his back that, like his current foot injury, was a recurrence of an injury he suffered at some point earlier.
In 2017, he was on his way to winning the league MVP when he tore two ligaments in his knee, including his ACL, in a Week 14 game against the Los Angeles Rams. He was replaced by Nick Foles, who led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl title.
As a rookie in 2016, Wentz suffered a rib hairline fracture in the preseason and missed three of the team’s four preseason games, but started all 16 regular-season games that year.
In 2015, he missed eight games in his final season at North Dakota State with a broken wrist, but returned and played in the FCS championship game, which his team won.