Cartoon: So much for the ‘Wentz Wagon’

Sorry, Carson Wentz, but it’s the Jalen Hurts show now.

With just three games remaining this season, it seems incredibly unlikely the Eagles will decide to bench Hurts and return to Wentz, who was benched after his sloppy and inconsistent play made him one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the league. Especially considering Hurts played well and led the team to a win over the Saints last week, who happen to have the best defense in the league.

Tony Dungy, the Hall of Fame coach and current NBC Sports analyst, said he wouldn’t have benched Wentz in the first place. But now that Doug Pederson have switched gears and gone with Hurts, Dungy said it would almost impossible to go back Wentz back this season.

“I go back to [former head coach] Denny Green and he told me when I was a very young coach, if you take your starting quarterback out, you’re telling your team you’re ready to move on,” Dungy said on WFAN in New York Friday. “It’s hard to say, ‘Hey we took Carson Wentz out for whatever reason. We put Jalen Hurts in, but now we can go back to Carson, he’s OK now.’ I think that really becomes tough, especially the way Hurts played.”

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts: What a good second start would look like for the Eagles

So what does that mean for Wentz? While there’s always a team or two in dire need of a quarterbacks (remember the Vikings and Sam Bradford?), thanks to his mammoth contract, it seems unlikely Doug Pederson and crew would trade Wentz away to another team during the offseason.

According to Sportrac, the Eagles would incur a cap charge of more than $30 million if they send Wentz packing to another team (that would balloon to nearly $60 million if they cut him outright). Considering the team is projected to be more than $64 million over the salary cap in 2021, that doesn’t seem likely.

So it’ll either be Wentz looking over his shoulder again as we enter the 2021 season, or the Eagles will have the league’s most expensive backup quarterback at a time they desperately need to simultaneously shed cap space and upgrade their roster. Eagles beat writer Jeff McLane thinks it might be Pederson who isn’t around next season, and wrote it’s unlikely both Wentz and Pederson return next season.

In other words, this could be a dumpster fire that continues to burn for quite a while. At least it’ll give Eagles fans something to boo when they’re able to return to the Linc next year.

Here’s a roundup of some recent cartoons from me and my colleague, Signe Wilkinson. For more editorial cartoons, visit the Inquirer’s cartoon section.