One potentially alarming thread to come out of Commanders training camp has been Carson Wentz's inaccuracy since the start of it.
But, is it too early to be concerned about? Michael Phillips of the Richmond Times-Dispatch joined The Sports Junkies Monday morning to calibrate the appropriate level of concern fans should feel about it.
"I think part of this is the number of enemies he's made along the way in Philly and Indianapolis," Phillips said on 106.7 The Fan. "You think about it, I mean the Philly media right now I don't think is covering the Eagles; I think they've gone to 24/7 'holy cow, Carson Wentz is bad in D.C.' That's part of it, is he's got that reputation, people are looking for it."
"And there's the kernel of truth there," he continued. "And the kernel of truth is he's been very inaccurate in a number of drills where you wouldn't expect an experienced quarterback to be very inaccurate. But, it does sound like this is a routine event, that he did this in Philly, he did this in Indy, and certainly his regular-season stats speak for themselves. He's been just fine in regular seasons and you just count on, hey, he's been in the league seven years, he's gonna put this together at the right time. But I can see why people are alarmed, because we haven't seen this show before."
One element that may be overlooked here is the lack of reps Wentz has had in his first offseason with top receiver Terry McLaurin, who abstained from the on-field portions of offseason workouts while holding out for a new contract. Once that was out of the way, the two could begin establishing that all-important quarterback-receiver rapport, but it did leave both somewhat behind the eight ball.
Without those reps, it's hard to pin inaccuracy issues entirely on Wentz. If they're not on the same page, they're not on the same page, and time and reps could certainly alleviate that.
"Yeah, and the good news is here there's still a lot of time left before the first game," Phillips said, acknowledging that point. "I mean you think about it's a three-preseason game schedule now, so they've got extra time baked into the whole thing. And Terry McLaurin shrugged it off the other day. He said, 'I'm gonna put in the work I need to put in to get to where I need to be,' and obviously he's a consummate pro, so he's gonna figure out whatever he needs to figure out."
"I think they have plenty of time to get it fixed," he continued. "But you're absolutely right, Terry was not there for the whole offseason program. They did their thing in California for a few days, but that's not a replacement for everyday work for a series of months, so I do think they've got some stuff to figure out and think they will figure it out. I think if nothing else, Terry will figure it out because he's a pro.
"But the other thing is I think this offense is gonna be built around taking a lot of deep shots, a lot of long balls this year, and so that's a tough one to practice because you don't want to blow out guys' hamstrings or anything having 'em go full speed every day in practice, you know, flinging 40-, 50-yard bombs. So we've seen 'em do it occasionally in practice, but I think that's something where they're really gonna need to develop that feel and touch once we turn the corner to actual game week preparation."
Phillips was asked what's looked great about Wentz in these early days.
"Carson Wentz just looks great," he replied. "I mean he's standing next to Taylor Heinicke, it's like a big brother, little brother kind of thing. The ball leaves his hand, it's, 'Oh, that's how an NFL quarterback throws a football.' It's a marked difference between the ball that comes out of Taylor Heinicke's hand and the ball that comes out of Carson Wentz's hand. He was born to do this."
"And inaccuracies aside, he can fling the ball downfield in a split second," he said. "His decision-making appears to be very quick, which could be a good thing if these offensive line injuries continue to linger. He was, especially at the scrimmage portion the other night at FedEx, he was looking one way, looking the other way, decision, throw, and when the ball leaves his hand, it is in the receiver's hand a split second later. So all those kind of fundamental NFL quarterback things, he's got 'em all."
