Carson Wentz: Job Saver or Franchise Savior?

Wentz’s Ability to Throw Deep Among His Assets

If you asked Washington fans what their biggest qualm was with Taylor Heinicke, what do you think you would hear? Time after time, it has been said he doesn’t have a pro-arm and his inability to throw the deep ball held the team back.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Heinicke added a lot of excitement to the team last season, but with three burners in McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, and Dyami Brown, the team needs a quarterback that can sling it down the field. That is an area where Wentz thrives. According to Player Profiler, last season, Wentz’s completion percentage on throws over 20 yards was 43.3%, sixth-best in the NFL, and more than 11% better than Heinicke, although he did attempt four fewer deep balls than Heinicke.

Although Heinicke had a higher passer rating (101 vs. 70) when going deep left, Wentz far surpassed him when going deep center (120 vs. 94) and deep right (116 vs. 30).

If Wentz is able to make some of the deep throws he made while with the Colts, Washington fans will definitely have something to cheer for.

In addition to the deep throw, another area where Wentz thrives is in his versatility and athleticism. Although he isn’t as nimble as Heinicke, Wentz can move around the pocket and make plays with his feet when he needs to, averaging a solid 4.1 yards per rushing attempt.

Another thing that might have caught Coach Rivera’s eye was Wentz’s Relative Athletic Score (RAS). When Washington drafted Sam Cosmi and brought in Sammie Reyes, a lot was made of their RAS scores, so it is clear that it is a metric the team values. Wentz has a solid RAS of 9.63 and is ranked elite for size, good in explosion and speed, and great in agility. Obviously, suffering the ACL tear may have had some impact on his explosiveness, but he still showed escapability last season.

Last season, Wentz was 11th in touchdown percentage and had the third-lowest interception percentage, despite having a protection rate that ranked 31st in the NFL. Although some have called out Wentz’s inability to lead the Colts to the playoffs with a dynamic Jonathan Taylor in the backfield, the part that is left out is his lack of receiving weapons. In fact, Michael Pittman Jr. was the first 1000+ yard receiver Wentz has played with in his career.

With McLaurin, a hopefully healthy Samuel, Brown, Logan Thomas, John Bates, and Antonio Gibson, this might be one of the most talented offenses that Wentz has been a part of. Can he make magic happen, we’ll have to wait and see.