The Kevin Sheehan Show - EMERGENCY POD: WENTZ!

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Kevin with an emergency podcast off the news that the Commanders traded for Colts QB Carson Wentz.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. On third down, four-man rush. Pressure comes. Wend's going to let it fly.

He's got Jackson again. He's boom. That was the 2019 season opener at Lincoln Financial, where Case Keenham had a monster game, and Washington built a 20-7 lead at halftime against Philadelphia, and it was Terry McLorne's debut. Keenham threw for 380 and three touchdowns. McClorn caught five balls for 125 yards in a touchdown,

and they just missed Keenham and McLorne did on another big-time hookup in the third quarter. Keenham overthrew him. Washington lost that game 3227, a game in which Carson Wentz threw for 313 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and had a QBR, a quarterback rating of 91.6 in that game. Had a passer rating of 121. Seemed like Carson Wentz always played well against Washington when he was in Philadelphia. Well, this is an emergency podcast, I guess you would call it.

It's not in lieu of our regularly scheduled podcast for the day, which was published. And is out there. And was a very good podcast, by the way, with Ben Standing and I talking together for a while about all of the fallout from the Russell Wilson trade to Denver. It was very much kind of an autopsy, if you will, of what happened yesterday. Now, we did end up talking about what would be next for Washington. And if you haven't listened to the podcast from earlier, that's probably for grins and giggles at this point. because it's irrelevant. Washington has their QB1 for at least the 2022 season, and his name is Carson Wentz. This is going to be a short reaction podcast.

I tried to get a couple of guests on for it, but everybody very busy. Some of those people will likely be on with me on radio tomorrow morning, if not the podcast, tomorrow. So for those that have been hibernating all day long, let me give you what happened just a few hours ago. The Colts traded Carson Wentz to Washington for a package of draft choices. Washington's giving up two third rounders in 2022 and 2023. So this draft and next year's draft, although the 2023 third round. rounder becomes a second round pick back to the Colts if Wentz plays 70% of Washington snaps in 2022. Again, two thirds, but more likely than not, a second and a third for Carson Wentz,

if he ends up playing 70% plus of Washington snaps in the upcoming season. They also swapped second round picks in this year's draft. The Colts moving from number 47 overall in the second round up to Washington's spot at number 42, Washington moving back five spots and picking at 47. So basically two third round picks, but more likely than not, a second and a third round pick and five spots in the second round in this year's draft. Now there's no guarantee way. is going to play 70% of the snaps. He's been hurt a lot over the course of his career, and he may stink, and we may end up seeing Taylor Heineke or maybe a rookie quarterback.

More on that coming up. But, you know, netting it out in terms of the actual trade compensation, two-thirds, but more likely than not, a second and a third for Carson Wentz, and then five spots difference and a swapping of second rounders in the upcoming 2022 draft. Now, there's another part of this. Washington, according to Adam Schefter, is going to pay the full $28 million due to Wentz for the 2022 season, which includes a $5 million roster bonus, which is due next week. So let's start talking about what Washington did here.

I won't bury the lead. I don't like it. I don't think this was a great deal for Washington. I think it reeks of a desperate deal for Washington. I think it also reeks of we have to do something. We can't get left at the altar with no bride in this offseason. We need somebody that has some cachet. We can't just go out and end up with Andy Dalton

Taylor Heineke and then draft somebody. And I think the No-On Rogers, which they knew was a no, but then the No-on-Wilson, which was yesterday or the day before, whenever they actually found out for sure that the deal with Denver was proceeding and that Seattle wasn't going to come back to them, if they ever were. The news also that Mitch Tribisky, who is a guy that Washington, Washington valued. Talk to somebody just moments ago. Yes, Washington did like Mitchell Trubisky. They valued Mitchell Trubisky, but I think there was some expectation that there was

going to be competition for Mitch Trubisky. In fact, a lot of the reporting starting last night and then into today, which I had on the podcast today, Charles Robinson reporting that the Giants were interested in Trubisky, and then Jordan Renan, ESPN.com, saying the Giants and Brian Dable, their new coach, very interested in Trubisky. The situation I was told was, you know, while the Maras like Daniel Jones, Brian Dable and Joe Shane, their new GM, don't. And that's why they're going to really go after Mitchell Trabisky, because I think they believe Jones won't work out, and they like Trubisky a lot.

So Washington was looking at no Rogers, no Wilson, no on Trubisky who would have been, I believe their number one target in free agency, and they were now looking at competition and maybe even

losing that competition to the Giants. We'll see who wins out, the Maras or their new GM and new coach. Because the Maras like Daniel Jones and the GM and the coach want Mitchell Trabisky in there. We'll see what happens if Trubisky actually signs with the Giants. But it was increasing in possibility that not only was there going to be a competition, but there might even be a favorite for Mitch Trubisky and it wasn't

going to be Washington. And then there was Deshawn Watson. Bottom line, too much waiting around more likely than not will be happening as it relates to. Deshawn Watson, and there's no guarantee that the waiting is going to produce a positive outcome, either for Watson or for a team that wants to trade for him. So Washington was now staring down the barrel of the likes of Marcus Marietta and James Winston and Andy Dalton and Bridgewater, Teddy Bridgewater, in terms of. terms of, you know, free agents. Garapolo was still out there.

We'll see if Garoppolo gets traded. The Derek Carr thing, I don't know if anybody expects Derek Carr to be put onto the block. Washington felt they had to move on something, and they moved on Carson Wentz. You know why they moved on Carson Wentz? Because more likely than not, no one else was willing to trade for Carson. I don't know that. I'm not reporting that by any stretch of the imagination. But if you were reading the tea leaves over the last few weeks, the Colts were more likely than not going to cut Carson Wentz if nobody traded for him. And then Washington would have been competing for Carson Wentz

that just released free agent. And there was no guarantee that they would get them if they had to compete with somebody to get him. I have no idea what Carson Wentz thinks of Washington and what he thinks of this trade. I'm sure we will hear soon enough what Carson Wentz thinks of this trade. He doesn't have a choice. He's under contract for the next three years.

And therein lies, I guess, if you want to frame it this way, the good news about this deal, and that is Carson Wentz's contract. Yeah, it's going to cost Washington $28 million this year more on that coming up here when I get to a list of the things that concern me about this deal and a much shorter list of the few things that don't concern me as much about this deal. But they're on the hook for $28 million in 2022.

He's under contract in 2023 and 2024, but not guaranteed. So Washington can do one year of Carson Wentz and release him if it doesn't work out and they won't owe him a penny and it won't count anything. It'll be $0 dead cap money. So that's, you know, part of what I would include, you know, makes this deal, I guess, somewhat palatable. But overall, you know, I don't love it. And so that's going to lead me to this and then we're going to wrap it up for the day. And again, I still would go back and listen to the other podcast.

Ben and I had no idea. overall I'm floored by by wince I did talk to somebody in gathering information on the on the Russell Wilson deal who did tell me they've got something else in the works but I did not tell me who it was and I would have never ever guessed that it was wence to be honest with you I don't think I would have guessed that it was gropolo but if I had to guess on either one I would have guessed gropolo first Like if somebody had said to me, they're working on something else and it's a trade, well, then you, you know, you do the Garapolo Wentz, you know, car, whatever. And I would have guessed Garapolo. I would have never, ever guessed Carson Wentz.

That, when that hit, you know, a little while ago, it really did completely shock me. I think it probably shocked a lot of people on, that have been following this saga. I don't know how, we'll find out how long they were working on it and whether or not, you know, it was in the event that the Wilson thing falls through. But let me get to a list of just, you know, kind of post-gaming this immediately. And I'll have more tomorrow on this show. Sam Monson from Pro Football Focus will be on the podcast tomorrow. And we'll try to get another person or two as well to weigh in on the radio show.

We'll have somebody from Philly and probably somebody from Indy on the radio show tomorrow morning on 980 as well starting at 6 a.m., 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. So let me go through a short list of the things that don't really piss me off about this deal. Number one is he's better than Taylor Heineke. He just is. You know, I don't know how much better he is than Taylor Heineke, but he's better than Taylor Heineke. they don't think that there's a competition with Carson Wentz. They didn't just trade two-thirds and potentially a second and a third for Carson Wentz because he's going to come in and compete with Taylor Heineke for the job.

Carson Wentz was traded for because they do, at the end of the day, believe he is an upgrade with some upside. And I think they know all they need to know about Taylor Heineke, and that is he's a fine teammate, a fine guy in the locker room, a fine guy in the meeting room, and absolutely a worthy NFL backup quarterback. So number one on the list of things that don't make me that concerned, he's better than Heineke, he's an upgrade. I don't know if he's more of an upgrade than Trubisky would have been or Marietta would have been,

and both of those guys would have come with less red flags. I'll get to that in a moment. but he's better than Heineke. Number two, he does have talent. You know, he does. We've seen it. We've all at one point in time over the last five years, six years now since he came into the league, five years, I guess five seasons.

At some point, pretty much everybody out there, all of you listening, at some point during his first five to six years of his career, said, Carson Wentz is good. You know, he's got talent. He can make all the throws. he's mobile. He's very good at extending plays. I mean, look, you know, the magician act, you know, the Houdini acts that he put on against Washington where it seemed like he was sacked. How many times did Ryan Kerrigan think he had him down and then he made a play? He's good at extending plays. He's good at, you know, creating off schedule.

He's got some talent. He does. It hasn't been realized fully. his play has never come close to matching the 2017 season when he was a pro-bowler and all-pro and an MVP candidate finished third in the MVP voting that year was the frontrunner when he got injured before Foles came in. He finished in that MVP voting in the AP behind Brady who won it and Todd Gurley who finished second. You know, even though he missed the final, you know,

three regular season games and then the entirety of the postseason. Anyway, he's got talent. He's better than Taylor Heineke. And then thirdly, the thing that I already mentioned, you can get out of this thing after a year. You're not locked into him for, you know, three years. And maybe they thought even if they got Trubisky, they were going to have to sign them to a two or three year deal. And they liked Trubisky, but they didn't like him at two to three years. You know, this is more like a more expensive version. of Ryan Fitzpatrick, a much younger version, a more mobile version. But really, it's a year later, it's $18 million more for a quarterback that's younger that I'm sure in the building they've talked about maybe we'll be the ones that can get them

to be a better leader, we can get them to be a more consistent player, and maybe he'll be the answer. But I don't think if there had been multiple years of guaranteed money left that they would have done this deal. So that's the list of the things that really, you know, don't anger me about this deal, the positives, okay? And let me just mention this. They tried for Russell Wilson. You know, they haven't been posing here. As I mentioned yesterday, I was ready when I saw the deal for Russell Wilson to pounce on them. But after learning that they made a big-time bona fide offer in terms of their pick package, and they were ready to go higher with players, they were ready to exceed the Denver offer. You know, that was Plan A. You know, maybe Rogers was Plan A, but it became pretty

apparent pretty quickly that Rogers wasn't on the table for them anyway. And Plan A was Russell Wilson and they did. They swung big for Russell Wilson. Let's remember that. They swung big for Russell Wilson. But Seattle wanted to trade him out of the conference and Russell Wilson preferred Denver. So, you know, you're left with, you know, as I mentioned before, you know, Trabisky, but now there's competition, Watson, who the hell knows, and maybe they know more than we know, and maybe it's problematic and maybe that's why Chris Greer mentioned it in Miami last week. And maybe it's just too much time and it's too much risk to wait around. And they made a move.

You know, they upgraded. I guess three weeks from now, if they hadn't made any move and my worst case scenario that I described on yesterday's podcast came true, which is like Deshaun Watson got dealt to Philly and Marcus Marriota signed in Seattle and Mitch Trubiski sign with the Giants and Jimmy Garoppolo got traded to Pittsburgh and there was nobody left and they were sitting there with Heineke and maybe like Teddy Bridgewater or Andy Dalton and then looking at the draft and saying, you know, we got Dalton on a one year six million dollar deal.

We're going to draft somebody. We've got Taylor. We'll let them all compete in the summer. You know, they needed to do better than that. and I guess trading for Carson Wentz and only having to deal with him for a year in terms of what they're committed to, but having the flexibility if he works out

to keep him for two more, it's better than maybe what could have been the result two, three, four weeks from now. And by the way, God forbid, they only ended up with Dalton and Heineke and then couldn't trade up and all the good quarterbacks started to go before 11. I mean, you know, they don't have total control over the situation clearly.

There are other teams that are interested too. Okay. Number one on the list of things that concerns me. List of things that concern me about this deal. Number one is the red flag on Carson Wentz. That red flag hoisted high. up into the air by the Indianapolis Colts, who traded a first and a third rounder a year ago and are getting rid of him a year later.

Hello? This was supposed to be a reunion with Frank Reich, his guru, his mentor. They were going to make magic like they did in Philadelphia together. That's a pro bowl roster, seven pro bowlers, a playoff roster. and he didn't play very well, and they don't like him enough to give him another chance to play better next year. I mean, come on, man. Like, I don't think if Ron Rivera were sitting here,

recording an interview with me for the radio show tomorrow, and I said to him, don't you think that bailing on this guy after a year of spending a first and a third is a red flag. I don't know how he could say, well, of course we, you know, anything other than, well, of course we considered that, but we, you know, and then he'd go into the due diligence that they did that, you know, ultimately led them to believe that they could make it work with them. But everybody who's paying attention understands that Carson Wentz is going to arrive in Washington in a vehicle that's got red flags flying from every part of the vehicle.

Number two, he just hasn't been that great. You know, part of the red flags are that, you know, he's flawed clearly as a leader. You know, we learned about that in Philadelphia. There's some issues clearly in Indy, if they're moving on from him after a year. Some people say it's all ursay, but it doesn't matter. The Colts are moving on for whatever reason. You know, after Philadelphia moved on for reasons of he's not a great leader, he keeps to a very small group, he's got all the answers just ask him.

You know, this is a guy that's coming into Washington with kind of a flawed leadership profile. And then from a performance standpoint, even though he is talented, you know, he hasn't been that great. 2020 was a dreadful year. 2021, he did throw 27 and 7 touchdown to interception ratio. But if you go back and you watch his games, very inconsistent, some awful moments, not just the Jacksonville game, in which he had a 4.6 QBR as a 15-point favorite in a game that they had to have to clinch a playoff berth. Go back and watch the game that they lost to Tennessee, where he threw the ball, you know, basically took a late-game interception return from his own end zone.

I mean, just flipped the ball up in the air, picked off a minute to go in the game. They came back. He drove him down the field. They tied the game, and then they lost it in overtime. He had some bad moments this year. He had some good moments. Not every game he played this year was horrible. But I'll read to you what pro football focus said about him

in ranking him as the 22nd of 38 quarterbacks this year, which seems about right. He's not a top half of the league starting quarterback. He hasn't been since 2017. The Colts trading, this is PFF. The Colts trading for Carson Wentz last offseason was always a risk, albeit a reasonable one given the other options available to a team that believed it possessed a playoff caliber roster. Wentz showed promise to begin the season posting just one

turnover worthy play in his first six games. But a meltdown in bad weather, followed by a less excusable performance against the Titans in the following weeks, seemed to open the floodgates. Wentz finished the season, excuse me, with 18 turnover worthy plays and didn't make enough positive ones to offset his struggles. He ended the year with an overall grade that was marginally better than last season. Last season, by the way, I'll add parenthetically, was an awful season, his worst, but significantly short of his best seasons in Philadelphia. He didn't have a great year. The 27 and 7's a bit misleading. The turnover worthy plays, 18's a big number. You know, Taylor Heineke, I remember, ended up with, I think with 22 and was one of the worst in the league,

so they weren't that far apart on turnover-worthy plays. He had seven pro bowlers on that team. That was a playoff roster with an MVP candidate in his backfield in Jonathan Taylor and a phenomenal offensive line. They went 9 and 8. And he literally gagged up the season finale. No other way to put it. I mean, literally was horrendous in that game.

there were some games during the course of the year. I remember the Christmas night game against Arizona. He played very well when they went into Arizona and beat him 22 to 16 Christmas night. Had a good game against the Patriots. Not the Patriots. Had a good game against Buffalo when they beat the Bills 41 to 15 on the road in late November. One of those weird games in which the bills really were not very good in that game.

Josh Allen had two picks, and they fumbled, like, twice in that game. Big turnover differential. Wentz didn't throw for a lot of yards, but managed the game really well. He had, you know, a really good game and a loss to Baltimore, that Monday night game early, where they had the big lead and they blew it and they came back. He threw for over 400 yards in that game. He, the Tampa game that they lost 3831 in, he, you know, he threw. for over 303 touchdowns, but had two critical turnovers in that game.

He wasn't awful the entire season, but it wasn't a great year. It was nowhere near the season of 2017. So on the list of things, as I'm getting a little bit long-winded here, on the list of things that I don't like. Number one, red flag after a year indie trading him, after dealing a first and a 30 year ago. That's obvious. Number two, he really hasn't been that good.

Terrible 2020. 2021 really was up and down. And in the biggest game of the year as a 15-point underdog, you know, he literally gagged the game up single-handedly. And they missed out on a playoff berth. Number three is this. I think Washington overpaid in this deal. I haven't seen any of those, you know,

trade evaluations by the Bill Barnwells or the field Yateses of the world yet, or the dude that does it on CBS sports. But my initial reaction is two-thirds and eating the $28 million in its entirety is too much for a guy that was more likely than not going to be released. Now, maybe there was competition for him. And trust me, if Washington really wanted him because this was kind of the last guy that, you know, might be available to them, that they could control whether or not he, you know, plays for them or not, and it wasn't going to be, you know, competing with others, then you had to actually give up something for him rather than letting him get released and then competing with other teams. But I don't know, man, two-thirds and the second-third

could be a second if he takes 70% of the snaps and eating his entire salary. I would have only done one or the other. Like to me, if you're going to, if I'm giving up a second and a third, two thirds worst case, you're taking 14 million. You're taking half of next year's salary. I need more cap space because next on my list is he, you know, he's 28 million on the cap next year. That leaves them with five million currently. Now that'll change because they're either going to release landing Collins or that are going to restructure landing Collins and they're going to create more cap space with some other moves. But that's a big $28 million. cap hit. Tribisky wasn't going to be that. Mariotta wasn't going to be that.

$28 million eats into the cap, you know, in a big way. I don't think I, I think the Colts got the better of the deal. They were probably going to release them or there was a chance they were going to release them. To me, it's like, we'll give you a third and we'll eat all the contract, or we'll give you two thirds and you're taken back half of the contract. Something like that. And even that seems like a bit much for a guy that may have been on the verge of being released. I mean, they have Sam Ealinger as his backup right now. Now, they might trade for Jimmy Garoppolo. They might trade for Kirk Cousins. But right now, they moved on from him with just Sam Ealinger in the building. So I think Washington didn't get the best of the deal.

The optics, which I touched on briefly, I think this is very much about keeping up with what they promised, which was to upgrade the position, to swing big, and I'm giving them credit for doing that. I'm not going to take away the credit for the effort they made for Russell Wilson. I'm not going to blame them for not being able to land Aaron Rogers. Okay, nobody was going to be able to do that. I'm not going to blame them for not waiting on the outcome of Deshawn Watson. It's a fucked up situation with Watson. And I'm sure it's very complex, even more so than we know. So, you know, the Garapolo, Trubisky, Marietta, Wentz, whatever.

I think Trubisky would have been better. You'd have paid less. You wouldn't have given up anything in draft choices. And to me, he's probably got a similar upside with less personality slash leadership red flags than Wence has. And by the way, the people that he just played for love him. They just don't have a spot for him because Josh Allen's the quarterback. But again, maybe they're doing Wence because they didn't think they would be able to get Trabisky. So I think, you know, the number one, red flag, number two, he's not been that good. Number three, I think they

overpaid a little bit for them. Number four, I think part of this is keeping in that, you know, hey, we're going to upgrade the position. We're going to be, you know, turning over every stone in this quarterback pursuit, a little bit of, you know, trying to keep the optics positive. I don't think Wence gives them a big boost from a season ticket standpoint at all. I don't know what the reaction's been on Sports Talk radio because I haven't been listening, but I'm assuming there's more more of the fans are saying no to this than are saying yes to this.

And then, you know, the big cap number. You know, he takes up a much bigger portion of the cap. I do not want this to prevent them from drafting a quarterback if they really like a quarterback with a big upside. This should not stop them from doing that because he is far from the answer. sir. Maybe he'll prove everybody wrong, including Indy and Philly, and turn into something that

resembles, you know, the guy that looked like he was on the verge of becoming a top 10 quarterback in 2017. Maybe Washington will be the place where, you know, somehow he becomes a better leader, a better teammate, if that's what the issue's been, a better player. But I wouldn't bet on it. I wouldn't bet on Indy and Frank Reich, who I think is a hell of a coach, bailing on this guy, if there was all of this upside left in him, especially given what they gave up to get him. So I would continue to be looking. I would be continuing to think very seriously about drafting the guy that I think has a big upside. Now, if they all come to the conclusion, there isn't one quarterback that they like. Okay, you know, and they'll tell us that after they don't take one.

Ben mentioned Desmond Ritter on the podcast earlier. I would urge you to go back and listen to that. You know, there's a lot of talk apparently in India about Ritter. Ritter's a guy that maybe Washington could trade back and get. You know, maybe that's the move. But I think they've got to take a quarterback in this draft in the top, you know, the top 32 to. to 48 picks. You know, they got to end up with a guy. If they like them, they got to still pursue that guy. Okay, that's it.

Emergency pod on this 3-922, March 9th, 2020, Washington trades for Carson Wentz, 10 years after they made the big trade with St. Louis so that they could select RG3. This wasn't, I don't think, the outcome that most of you were looking for. But bottom line is they couldn't land the outcome that they were hoping for, that they were striving for.

They are one of these teams, as we've discussed for a long period of time and maybe the team, they're just not a premium destination for most players with a choice. It just is what it is. We've talked about it for years now. and this is what Ron and the other people in the building are starting to realize that that stadium, the lack of fans, you know, maybe the new name and the new uniforms, but certainly all of the other shenanigans that have gone on, you know, on the other side of the building led by the worst owner in the league, you know, that catches up with them and has caught

up with them over the years. Now guys without choices, they're going to take the money. this is a better coaching staff and it's a respected group of football people. And those players look at that a lot too. But if they've got choices, most places look a lot better than this one. That's the reality. All right, back tomorrow.