NFC East Rumors: Wentz, Eagles, Redskins
More details have emerged on Carson Wentz‘s contract. The deal, which stands to tether the quarterback to the Eagles through 2024, contains a $16.4MM signing bonus and a 2020 team option, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. This $30MM option will serve as a bonus and thus be spread in $5MM installments through the duration of the deal (for cap purposes), Joel Corry of CBS Sports notes. But Wentz will receive all of that cash in 2020, Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia notes. The Eagles must exercise that option by the 10th day of the 2020 league year, Yates tweets. Interestingly, if the Eagles decline the option, Wentz’s 2020 base salary morphs from $1.383MM to $31.383MM. As could be expected based on the franchise’s sizable commitment to its starting passer, the parties have already agreed that option will be picked up, Zangaro adds. As far as the 26-year-old quarterback’s new base salaries, they are as follows: $720K in 2019, $1.383MM in 2020, $3.9MM (2021), $18.5MM (2022), $18MM (2023) and $21MM (2024), per Yates.
- Trent Williams remains at odds with the Redskins, with issues related to his contract and the team’s handling of his offseason medical issue coming between the parties. The nine-year veteran tackle underwent another procedure this week. This was, however, believed to be a minor cleanup related to the growth on his head, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
- The Redskins’ running back group is deeper than it was last season, with Derrius Guice set to debut and Bryce Love arriving via fourth-round pick. While it’s not certain how much Love will be able to contribute as a rookie, due to his December ACL tear, the new cogs joining Adrian Peterson and Chris Thompson may spell trouble for Samaje Perine. The third-year player, though, may have a chance to stick around as a fullback. “We tried him there a couple of times a couple of years ago,” Jay Gruden said, via J.P. Finlay of NBC Sports Washington. “I’m sure that he could probably do it. That’s an option, but he’s also a tailback in his mind and he wants the ball. Push comes to shove, if we need to have a fullback and he’s the only one here, then he surely could do it because he’s got the power to do it.” However, Gruden added Elijah Wellman and J.P. Holtz are more natural fits for this job, putting Perine’s roster spot in peril.
- Washington made some adjustments to its staff this week. Cole Spencer and David Whittington will transition from college scouts to national scouting roles. Spencer previously served as the Redskins’ southeast area scout, which is notable due to the number of Alabama players on this roster. Northeast area scout Matt Evans will take over in Spencer’s former role in the southeast. Spencer has been with the Redskins for 10 years, while Whittington and Evans sport 11 and six years, respectively, with the organization. Additionally, the Redskins plucked a Pro Football Focus staffer, Connor Barringer, to become their football strategy analyst. It appears the team is beefing up its analytics commitment.
Lurie Convinced Malcolm Jenkins To Attend Minicamp
- Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie played a role in convincing safety Malcolm Jenkins to attend the team’s minicamp. The veteran had previously missed the team’s voluntary workouts, and there was concern that he’d skip training camp in pursuit of a new deal. However, after talking to Lurie, Jenkins was in a better frame of mind. “One of the reasons that I feel comfortable being here,” Jenkins told Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer, “is because of my relationship with Jeff Lurie and understanding that I do feel valued and respected.”
[SOURCE LINK]
Eagles Notes: Roseman, Weidl, Wentz
The departure of Joe Douglas to the Jets has let to some front office shuffling for the Eagles. This week, the Eagles officially added the title of GM to Howie Roseman‘s nameplate and elevated Andy Weidl from director of player personnel to vice president of player personnel.
“Andy was raised in a great scouting community with the Steelers, Saints, and Ravens and then came to Philadelphia at the same time that we hired Joe,” Roseman said in a statement. “He’s grown from assistant director of player personnel to director of player personnel and really deserves an opportunity to run the scouting department on a day-to-day basis as the vice president of player personnel. We’re excited about Andy.”
The Eagles will now forge ahead without Douglas in a quest to capture another Super Bowl ring. Here’s the latest from Philly:
- Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of the Eagles’ front office shuffle, from Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer (on Twitter): The team has two main arteries – a football operations department and a player personnel department. Andrew Berry is atop football operations while Weidl is atop player personnel. Both execs will funnel up to Roseman, who is atop the chart.
- Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap took a deep dive into Carson Wentz‘s extension, which is not as clear-cut as first believed.
- Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins wants a new contract, but he still showed up for mandatory minicamp.
Eagles Notes: Jenkins, Wentz, Staff
Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins did not report to team OTAs earlier this offseason in the hopes of renegotiating his contract. At the first day of minicamp on Tuesday, the veteran defender opened up about his desire for a new deal and said that both sides are still talking, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane tweets.
Though he wants to rework his current deal, Jenkins said he did not consider skipping minicamp, citing his relationship with owner Jeffrey Lurie and the need to be with his teammates as motivating factors for showing up.
Jenkins is under club control through 2020 thanks to a four-year, $35MM extension he signed three years ago, but after the safety market famously stagnated in 2018, it came back in 2019. Jenkins is now the 10th-highest-paid safety in the NFL in terms of total value, full guarantee, and per-year average.
“I’m happy whenever any other player gets paid,” Jenkins said, as tweeted by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Zach Berman. “You start to look at where you are and evaluate your position, just like anybody in any job. If you feel like you’re the best at what you do and there are other people out there making more than you, you want to renegotiate your contract make sure you’re getting the value you should be. Any business and any businessperson should think like that. I think any player should think like that.
As McLane notes, Jenkins and Lurie have a solid relationship and talks are ongoing, which should signal that a new deal could be in the offing before the start of the season.
Here’s more from Philadelphia:
- After an injury-plagued 2018 campaign, the Eagles decided to shake up their medical staff in 2019, McLane writes. The team parted way with its head physician and internist, Stephen Stache, and hired Arsh Dhanota to be the chief medical officer. Stache was in the position for just one season and the team saw a 57-percent increase in player injuries from the 2018 campaign.
- Among the pros of Carson Wentz‘s new deal with the Eagles include the annual cap hit and his future potential, 94WIP’s Eliot Shorr-Parks writes. In his pros-and-cons list, Parks notes that his current average between $26 and 27MM a year would rank ninth among all quarterbacks, a significant value for the potential of the signal-caller, which is a top-five passer. The obvious con is the risk involved with a deal for a player riddled with injuries through his first three seasons in the league.
Andy Weidl Leading Eagles Scouting Department
Following Joe Douglas‘s move to the Jets, Andy Weidl has been leading the Eagles‘ scouting department as the director of player personnel, tweets Geoff Mosher of 97.3 ESPN in Jersey. Weidl previously served as Philly’s assistant director of player personnel.
Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins Reports To Team
Eagles’ safety Malcolm Jenkins reported for his team physical this week and will be in attendance for the team’s mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, a source tells ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). Furthermore, Schefter hears that Jenkins is excited to be with his teammates and is focused on the 2019 season as an Eagle. 
Jenkins skipped out on OTAs in an apparent effort to get his contract reworked. It’s not yet clear whether the Eagles will meet his demands, however, since his deal doesn’t expire until the end of the 2020 season. The veteran’s $8.75MM average annual salary still ranks in the top-10 at the position, though the 31-year-old recognizes that this may be his last shot at a pay bump.
Despite a down year for the safety market in 2018, things have advanced at the position. Jenkins’ per-year salary of $8.75MM is only 63% of the $14MM average for Landon Collins and Tyrann Mathieu, who both inked new deals earlier this year. Jenkins is older than both players, but it would be difficult for Philadelphia to argue that he is only 63% as valuable.
While Jenkins might not have enough leverage for a pay bump, his importance to the club could result in an extension to take him through at least the 2021 season.
How Will The Eagles Replace Joe Douglas?
Teams obviously hate to lose talented front office executives, and when it happens, the losing club will invariably wish the departing exec all the best and will lament how difficult it will be to replace him.
But for the Eagles, who lost Howie Roseman‘s second-in-command when Joe Douglas agreed to accept the Jets’ GM job several days ago, replacing Douglas really will be a tall order. Douglas was instrumental in some of the major roster decisions that turned Philadelphia into a Super Bowl champion at the end of the 2017 season, and his fingerprints are all over the 2019 club, which is again expected to compete for a title.
Zack Rosenblatt of NJ.com examines three potential candidates to fill the void that Douglas left: vice president of football operations Andrew Berry, assistant director of player personnel Andy Weidl, and recently-deposed Texans GM Brian Gaine.
Berry is perhaps the most logical choice, as he was hired by the Eagles just a few months ago as a potential replacement for Douglas when Douglas ultimately moved on. Philadelphia may not have thought that it would need to fill Douglas’ role so soon, but it seemed the club knew that Douglas would get a GM gig sooner rather than later. Berry spent three years with the Browns as their vice president of player personnel, and while his background isn’t in college scouting, he is still widely respected in league circles and is seen as a future GM himself.
Weidl came to the Eagles along with Douglas in 2016, and he has a scouting background to rival Douglas’. Weidl may join Douglas’ new staff in New York, but that is still a fluid situation.
Gaine, meanwhile, was shockingly fired by the Texans just one year into his tenure as GM, and no one has been able to figure out exactly why. His inclusion on Rosenblatt’s list is perhaps more speculation than anything else, but Gaine has not — on the surface — done anything to damage his reputation as a talented executive, and he will surely get a prominent role somewhere. He may find Philadelphia’s strong front office as an attractive place to land on his feet.
Reactions, Notes On Carson Wentz’s Extension
Earlier this week, the Eagles and Carson Wentz agreed to a four-year extension that would keep the quarterback in Philly through the 2024 season. The new-money figures include $128MM, with more than $107MM in total guarantees and $66MM guaranteed at signing. The contract can ultimately escalate to $144MM in new money.
Predictably, there have been plenty of notes and reactions pertaining to the extension. We’ve compiled the latest below:
- While Wentz recently became eligible for an extension, the quarterback could have waited to see if he’d boost his earnings ceiling. However, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweets that the 26-year-old was content with the more than $100MM in guaranteed money (along with the injury protections). Furthermore, if Wentz finds that his contract is a bargain in a few years, the quarterback is content knowing that the Eagles will have some extra money to spend elsewhere.
- The extension locked up Wentz for the foreseeable future, and it also means that Eagles have a lot more clarity going forward. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie echoed this sentiment while talking with Dave Spadaro of the team website (Twitter link). “We found a wonderful quarterback and person a few years ago,” Lurie said (via Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com). “He’s everything you want in a franchise quarterback. To be able to plan ahead and know exactly that he’s going to be with us and build the roster in just the way that we want to do it, it means everything. It allows you to make smart decisions. We always wanted a terrific quarterback and a terrific person, and he embodies it in every way.”
- While Lurie sounds excited about the Wentz extension, the owner is also pleased with the front office’s ability to lock up many of his teammates. “We’ve got a great young core, and we’ve got a great core that we’ve been able to extend,” Lurie said (via Williams). “It gives you the best chance to win. . . .I can’t be more excited about our season. I wish September were here now.”
- Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that pundits could make an argument that it would have been better for the Eagles to wait a year before extending Wentz. After all, the quarterback has suffered injuries in each of his three NFL seasons. On the flip side, even if Wentz were to suffer another injury, McLane opines that he would have still garnered a lucrative contract. Furthermore, the organization may have saved some dough by extending Wentz ahead of Jared Goff and Dak Prescott.
Poll: Will Eagles Regret Carson Wentz Deal?
On Thursday night, the Eagles and Carson Wentz reached agreement on a massive new contract. The four-year add-on is worth $128MM in total with upwards of $107MM in overall guarantees. Meanwhile, Wentz reportedly gets $66MM guaranteed at signing, a huge haul for a player who has finished the last two seasons on IR. 
Wentz nearly captured the league’s MVP trophy in 2017 before a season-ending ACL tear sidelined him and cleared the way for Nick Foles‘ legendary run to the Super Bowl. It was a similar story (albeit with a different ending) in 2018 – Wentz managed to throw for 21 touchdowns against seven interceptions in eleven games last year, but a back injury forced him to cede the starting role to Foles once again.
Wentz’ injury history is cause for concern, but the Eagles have doubled down with this colossal new deal. The club no longer has Foles as a safety net and Wentz, the former No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, is now the first QB in the NFL signed through the 2024 season.
Of course, the market for top-end quarterbacks advances rapidly, so Wentz’s $32MM average annual value might not seem like a big deal by the time he enters Year Two of the extension. And, if Wentz returns to MVP-level form, it will prove to be a rather reasonable contract for the Eagles.
Ultimately, do you see this deal backfiring for Howie Roseman & Co.? Cast your vote below (link for app users) and back up your choice in the comment section.
Will Eagles Regret The Carson Wentz Deal?
-
Yes 61% (1,124)
-
No 39% (724)
Total votes: 1,848
Reactions To Carson Wentz's Deal
- For now, Carson Wentz‘s new deal looks to be a win-win for the Eagles and the quarterback, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes. Wentz netted upwards of $100MM in guarantees in the deal, but given the expected climb in the salary cap, it could quickly prove to be an under-market deal for Philly. At the same time, the new money average of $32MM is pretty high considering that Wentz has suffered season ending injuries in two consecutive Decembers. For reference, under the new money metric, Wentz trails only Russell Wilson ($35MM), Ben Roethlisberger ($34MM), and Aaron Rodgers ($32.5MM).
- The Wentz deal is an aggressive one for the Eagles, but not a reckless one, Tim McManus of ESPN.com argues. The Eagles believe that they’ll save millions on the back end of the deal if Wentz returns to his MVP-caliber level of performance, though they know that it could backfire miserably if his injury issues creep up again. McManus also notes that Wentz could have been difficult through a long and drawn-out negotiating process, so there was plenty of reason to get a deal done now instead of kicking the can down the road.