Can Carson Wentz Elevate The Eagles Offense Moving Forward?
Despite the good news that Carson Wentz is returning to the field for Week Three, the Eagles are still going to be without some of their primary pass catchers on offense. In 2017, Alshon Jeffrey led the offense in Targets (120) while Torrey Smith (67) and Trey Burton (31) were among the top five on the team in Targets also. But none of those Receivers will be on the field when Wentz returns versus the Colts this Sunday. Outside of Pro Bowl Tigh End Zach Ertz and Fourth Year Receiver Nelson Agholor, the Receiving Corp will feature players who do not have extensive experience working with Wentz, a group that includes Shelton Gibson and Kamar Aiken. Also, the Eagles could be without either or both of their top Running Backs Darren Sproles and Jay Ajayi; Sproles missed the Buccaneers match-up with a Hamstring issue while Ajayi suffered a back injury in Tampa. So can Carson Wentz in his first game back play well enough to elevate his teammates?
ESPN.com NFL Insider KC Joyner joined Mike Gill on Monday with his perspective on the impact of Wentz return to captain the Eagles Offense:
"With Foles, I know what he did in the postseason but I think (Eagles) still don’t fully trust him to say we’re just going to cut him loose. If Wentz is out there you let him cut it use and use his mobility more although he is coming back from injury. Are they gonna do that immediately or are they gonna scale it back? - I would think they would allow him to do those type of things and Wentz has the ability, sort of like Philip Rivers has. Philip Rivers, when you look at his career, he’s always had some good receivers but you see all these second tier receivers who go and play for the Chargers and they put up these huge numbers because Rivers knows what to do to get them open and he can get the ball to them, he’s aggressive enough to do so. So I think Wentz will have a similar role but I’d still love to see some of those talented receivers come back because you can't really count on the quarterback to do it all by (himself).”
Checkout Joyner's analysis of the Eagles loss to the Buccaneers in Week 2, perspective on Nelson Agholor, and review NFL Week 2 Sunday results