Heading into their week 4 bye at 3-0, the Philadelphia Eagles are certainly flying high as they lead the NFC East division. As one of only four undefeated teams remaining in the NFL, it is easy to look at a defense that leads the league in points allowed through three weeks as the biggest reason for their early season success.
Taking a closer look at the situation however, the biggest surprise and most impressive part of the Eagles' hot start has been rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, who Philadelphia drafted by trading up to no. 2 overall in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Through the first three starts of his NFL career, Wentz has thrown for 769 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. Wentz, who played four years at North Dakota State, was merely an afterthought once the Eagles traded Sam Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings to replace injured quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
Many, including myself, thought Wentz would struggle being thrusted into the starting lineup right away, having a hard time adjusting to the speed of the game. Boy, were a lot of us wrong. We must take a minute to give credit to head coach Doug Pederson and the rest of the offensive coaching staff, who have designed a game plan perfect for Wentz's skill set, while remaining somewhat simple. Wentz seems to always get the ball out of his hands quickly to an open receiver and the plays designed for him to throw on the move come at the right times of the game.
Now, back to Wentz, who is the latest example showing us that you can't really judge an NFL prospect simply by the level of competition he played at in college. There were those who were extremely high on Wentz coming out of college, but there were many more that thought playing at a school at the level of North Dakota State couldn't possibly prepare a quarterback for the NFL. I was somewhere in between. I knew he had the size, skill, and potential to get it done. I just never thought he would be able to do what he is doing this soon.
It is quite funny when you think about it because in a way history is just repeating itself. When you think about Hall of Fame players like Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State University) and Michael Strahan (Texas Southern University) or future Hall of Fame player like Terrell Owens (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) or Antonio Brown (Central Michigan University), there have been examples in the past and present that teach scouts and other football aficionados not to judge by the school, yet we still do all the time.
Guys like Wentz and others who shatter the mold are making some NFL scouts look pretty bad, while making his or her job a lot more difficult. By the way, how bad do the Cleveland Browns look now? The team that traded out of the no. 2 spot and the team that still doesn't have a franchise quarterback after trying out one after another.
The old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" needs to start applying to scouting football players as well. The correlation between the level of competition in college and NFL success isn't as simple as the casual fan might think. Going forward I think we will start to see more and more FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) prospects get more notoriety and opportunity.
