The next time anyone outside of an Eagles' employee gets to see Carson Wentz play meaningful football will be Week 1 against the Washington Redskins.
The question is -- will he be ready?
The answer to that isn't completely clear, something the team likely didn't want heading into the regular season. Head coach Doug Pederson seems to think he is, insisting he had so much confidence in Wentz that he elected not to play him at all in the preseason.
"We've had a lot of good work with him in training camp," Pederson said. "We had a lot of great work against Baltimore this week in practice, and I'm real comfortable with where he's at right now in his development, his growth with the team, and with the offense."
Pederson is right — Wentz has gotten a ton of work in during training camp. Unlike last season, when Wentz was in-and-out of drills as he recovered from a torn ACL, the Eagles' franchise quarterback took every snap with the first-team offense throughout training camp.
The results, however, were mixed.
Here is an in-depth look at Wentz's 2019 training camp:
STATS: The most important number in many ways when it comes to Wentz's training camp is 448. That is the amount of reps he took in the 16 training camp practices (not including 10/10/10 walkthroughs) that were open to the media. That is close to twice as many reps as he took as a rookie in 2016 and close to three-times as many as he took last year. It is also around the same amount of reps he took in training camp in 2017, which was without question the best year of his career.
Seeing Wentz take all of the reps, and get so much work in, is almost more important than how he actually played.
Both statistically and to anyone watching, however, Wentz did not have as good of a training camp in 2019 as he did in 2017:
Training Camp Stats:
2019: 210/330, 23 TD, 9 INT
2018: 64/100, 9 TD, 5 INTs
2017: 227/330, 31 TD, 5 INT
2016: 125/187, 13 TD, 1 INT
As you can see, Wentz had almost twice as many interceptions and threw eight less touchdowns. While the touchdown number is not that concerning — the drills a team does can heavily impact that — the interceptions are somewhat alarming.
What is encouraging, however, is that when you look at those numbers, they are much more in line with what Wentz did in 2017. His performance in training camp wasn't as dominant or electrifying as it was in 2017, but it was much closer than he was in 2016 or 2018.
RED ZONE: One area Wentz did struggle in during training camp was the red zone, and that is a large reason why his touchdown numbers were down. Wentz's struggles in the red zone were on display during their joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens. Wentz took 15 snaps in the red zone against the Ravens over two practices and got the Eagles into the end zone just twice. In a drill that normally favors the offense, Wentz had nine incompletions to five completions. That kind of performance was on par with how he has been throughout training camp in the red zone.
The Eagles' offense protects to be an issue in the red zone during the regular season, with how much size they have — Ertz, Jeffery, Arcega-Whiteside, Goedert. The struggles in the red zone during training camp are not a huge red flag, but they were noticeable.
DECISION MAKING: For the most part, without the option of seeing the All-22 tape, it appeared Wentz made the right reads with the ball during training camp. Wentz did an excellent job of pushing the ball down the field while also not being reckless. His interceptions were mostly the result of poor throws as opposed to throwing into double-or-triple coverage. What really stood out about Wentz compared to the other quarterbacks was how much he did throw the ball beyond 15-yards, something that Pederson likely loved to see.
Wentz also did an excellent job spreading the ball around. The Eagles have a ton of weapons on offense and Wentz made sure they call got a chance to make plays.
Targets from Wentz:
Jeffery: 44 targets
Agholor: 43 targets
Ertz: 41 targets
Jackson: 36 targets
ACCURACY: Training camp completion percentages should, obviously, be taken with a grain of salt. Completing the ball in training camp is easier than it is during a game, where lots of the throws are check downs or in 7-on-7 drills.
That being said, the numbers match the eye-test when it comes to Wentz's accuracy in training camp this year.
One of the most alarming parts of Wentz's training camp was how many throws he missed that he normally makes. Wentz would make two-or-three throws a day that were amazing, while also missing two-or-three throws a day he should have easily made. Statistically this was the worst training camp Wentz has had in terms of completion percentage.
Completion percentages:
2019: 63%
2018: 64%
2017: 68%
2016: 67%
A main issue Wentz had was his deep-ball accuracy. He connected on some long completions to his receivers, especially DeSean Jackson, but he also missed more than he should have. In fact, he probably missed more down the field throws than he made. The issue was Wentz overthrowing the ball, something that should be hard to do when you are targeting Jackson.
"Yeah, we want him to complete those," offensive coordinator Mike Groh said after the first day of practice against the Baltimore Ravens. "That's one of the reasons why we called them today and wanted to practice against the Ravens. Getting more of those live reps with pushing the ball down the field. We know that those are plays we have to make and that's one of the things we'll work on."
MOBILITY: One of the biggest takeaways from Wentz's training camp is that he seemed to stay in the pocket way more than he has throughout his career, both in training camp practices and in the regular season. Of the 330 passes Wentz attempted, only about two-or-three came outside of the pocket. He only scrambled once-or-twice as well.
Wentz insisted he was not doing it on purpose, but the drastic difference in playing style was noticeable, and it is hard to believe it isn't somewhat intentional.
When Wentz did take off, or even just when he was running during other drills, he looked healthy and more athletic than he did last season, when he was recovering from a torn ACL and was dealing with a fractured back.
It will be interesting to see if Wentz does indeed stay in the pocket more than he has in the past once the regular season begins. Wentz has been at his best out of the pocket so far in his career, using his elite ability to create on the run while keeping his eyes down the field to make big plays. If he does stay in the pocket more, and avoid rolling out, his accuracy is going to be key — and it wasn't exactly razor sharp in training camp.
OVERALL: Wentz stayed healthy, he got lots of work in, he made some highlight worthy throws and showed he could ready to have a season much more like the one he did in 2017 than he did in 2018. Considering how injury-plagued his career has been so far, the fact he made it through training camp healthy should not be overlooked.
The one legitimate concern the Eagles should have from Wentz's training camp is his accuracy. When Wentz misses he misses high, leading to interceptions. It goes without saying that to be a successful quarterback in the NFL you have to be consistently accurate, and Wentz did not display that in training camp. If things go poorly for Wentz this season, outside of injury, accuracy will almost certainly be the reason why.
Overall, however, the Eagles should be mostly encouraged by what they got from Wentz in training camp.
You can follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
