PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Carson Wentz is getting national attention after shining bright on the big stage of Monday Night Football. Wentz threw four touchdown passes in a 34-24 win over the Washington Redskins. He also led the team in rushing carrying the ball eight times for 63 yards.

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It is not necessarily the stats that Wentz puts up on a weekly basis. It is how he does it that stands out. Nearly every game yields another moment that makes Wentz look like a magician.

Monday night he broke the pocket and had a defender in his face ready to deliver a big hit, but Wentz still threw a perfect pass in the corner of the endzone to Corey Clement for a touchdown. Later in the game, Wentz appeared to be sacked but somehow stayed on his feet and snuck out of the pile to convert a third and long.

Plays like those certainly get the attention of his teammates.

“I said ‘wow’ when he threw that ball to Corey, that’s for sure,” Center Jason Kelce chuckled. “It seems to me like he was trying to avoid pressure and moving left, throwing off his back leg and just dropped a dime. It was a perfect pass. I was very impressed on that one.”

“That 17-yard scramble, seeing it on the video board after, I’m like I don’t know how he does that,” Tight End Zach Ertz stated. “I don’t know if there is another quarterback that can do that. I love playing with him.”

“We didn’t know how he did that,” Slot Receiver Nelson Agholor laughted. “Three or four plays later we are on the sideline still trying to figure out how he did that. He is amazing.

Wentz has also raised more than a few eyebrows from his teammates on the other side of the ball.

“That one he busted up the middle I am thinking okay, here we go, we are about to get on the field,” Defensive End Brandon Graham said. “Then next thing you know, first down. I’m like wow, Carson.”

The one where he scrambled out there,” Safety Malcolm Jenkins recalled. “I literally grabbed my helmet, and then somehow I looked up at the screen and he was still running. That’s the magic of Carson Wentz.”

Great players are frequently defined as those who raise the level of play of the others around them. Wentz is clearly doing that with his receivers.

“I keep saying that I have the easiest job,” Ertz stated. “I go out there and run my routes and he makes the perfect throw each and every time. I just have to catch the ball.”

“You have to have that ‘I will not be denied mentality’ and that is him,” Agholor said. “It rubs off on the guys around him. When I line up, I want to have that same mentality he has because my quarterback has it. It goes from the top down. If my quarterbacks is living that way, the rest of the receivers, running backs and everyone else on this team wants to do that too.”

Wentz is leading the league with 17 touchdown passes. He is fourth in the league with 1,862 yards passing. He has thrown just four interceptions and carried the ball 40 times for 196 yards. His numbers are impressive, but it is his demeanor that stands out most to his teammates.

“He’s humble,” Offensive Tackle Lane Johnson said. “The amount of work he puts in that people don’t see behind closed doors. He comes in before everybody else and does a lot of film study. He is just a good teammate, somebody you can eat breakfast with and chat with.”

“He has been the same since he got here,” Jenkins stated. “Every single day his approach has been no different whether it is a win or a loss or he had a good game or bad game. His demeanor has been the same and usually that is the hard thing for young players to grasp. It has been impressive to watch.”

“The attention to detail, the film study, the professionalism he has as a quarterback is second to none in my opinion,” Agholor said. “That is from watching film, knowing coverages and knowing the game so well.”

Perhaps one of the greatest compliments for Wentz came from his Head Coach. Doug Pederson played quarterback in the NFL for 12 years backing up guys like Donovan McNabb and Brett Favre.

“Listen, he studies and prepares like I've never seen before in a quarterback,” Pederson said. “And to be this young and to hang in there and take shot after shot, it's just amazing to me that -- a lot of guys would probably duck and run or throw the ball away and that's just not in him. That's just not his demeanor. He's going to continue to shoot the ball down the field. And you just see his mental and physical toughness. And it's fun to watch when it's clicking like that and he's playing that well.”

Wentz is the clear leader on this team. He is also being mentioned as a potential MVP candidate if he continues to play at such a high level.

“If I had to decide, he is my MVP,” Agholor said. “He is my quarterback and he is a great player and a great person.”

Wentz will look to perform his next magical act Sunday when the Eagles host the San Francisco 49'ers.


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