While Carson Wentz may struggle with his mechanics at times, there's no doubting the Commanders quarterback's physical ability on the field. Wentz is a 'cyborg' who looks to rip your jugular right out of your neck, NFL film analyst Brian Baldinger says.
"I've seen Carson since 2016 day one here in Philadelphia," Baldinger told 106.7 The Fan's Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier, "and the last thing Carson wants to do is dink and dunk down the field. I mean he's got a big arm. He wants to go for kill shots. If he has the right group to do it, he will take his shots."
"Now, he's got to be more accurate with the ball," he said. "I think everybody understands that. That is a function of his mechanics that can get sloppy at times. I think he would agree — maybe not publicly, but I think he'd agree that it's something that he's got to work on constantly. Because, when he gets sloppy, the ball goes in places that he doesn't want it to go.
"So he does look to really rip your jugular right out of your neck. That's kind of his style. But I think he's been around the league long enough that he's not gonna turn the ball over a lot, he just isn't, which is a good thing for this Washington Commander offense. But I do want to see if he's going to take his share of deep shots the way he has in other places he's been."
Baldinger scoffed at the notion of Wentz being ranked 34th among NFL quarterbacks by FiveThirtyEight.
"First of all, the guy's a cyborg, alright," Baldinger said. "So I don't know what [being ranked] 34 means in a 32-team league, but there's very few players at that position that are built like that. He's 240 pounds. He's solid as a rock. He's got just an absolute Howitzer for an arm. But to play quarterback and to win postseason games, you've got to be a whole lot more than that. He knows that."
"There's a lot of reasons why he was cut loose in Indianapolis," he continued. "It wasn't just the last two games of the season. But that's okay -- he's got a fresh start and a team that believes in him right now. And I think the big thing is to build as much timing with the guys around him as he possibly can. But physically, he's very, very gifted. I do think that, like I said, his mechanics can get away from him, they can get sloppy, and it has been problem for him and why he has not been as accurate as he needs to be. And so, I'm curious to see how he looks coming out of the gates here Sunday against Jacksonville, a guy on the other side that knows him better than anybody in Doug Pederson. This should be a lot of fun Week 1 to see if they can get off to a good start."
Baldinger loves that the Commanders selected Jahan Dotson with the 16th overall pick and believes the Penn State product is almost a clone of Terry McLaurin, which should give Wentz two solid offensive options.
"I like his approach to the game," Baldinger said of Dotson. "He's got a very professional approach. We all have gotten to know Terry McLaurin since he's been in Washington and we know what kind of person he is, how intelligent he is, and I feel like Dotson's the same type of player, almost a clone in a lot of ways."
"He might now have the top-flight speed," he said, "although I wouldn't imagine that he'd be very far behind in a foot race with McLaurin. But he caught a ton of jet sweeps and screens like that at Penn State. I think a lot of those will be in the offense this year with Carson. So I mean, I think he's a dynamic playmaker that has the right approach to the game and so I think we'll see that. I don't think he thinks that he's got it all figured out or he's a me-me guy. I don't think he's any of that. I think he's a complete team guy and he will do everything he can do to help this team win, but he's not gonna be a pain in the butt in that locker room at all."
