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Eagles debate table: How serious is Carson Wentz’s fumbling issue?

By Geoffrey Knox

PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 21: Quarterback Carson Wentz #11 of the Philadelphia Eagles reacts after losing possession of the ball late in the fourth quarter against the Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field on October 21, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Panthers won 21-17. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 21: Quarterback Carson Wentz #11 of the Philadelphia Eagles reacts after losing possession of the ball late in the fourth quarter against the Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field on October 21, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Panthers won 21-17. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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We’re right at the midway point of the 2018 NFL season, and it may be time to start asking questions about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz’s fumbling issues.

Well, all is right with the world again. One week after blowing a 17-0 fourth-quarter lead, the Philadelphia Eagles, technically the road team, took care of business in a glorified home game in London with a 24-18 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Their quarterback, Carson Wentz, was all the rage with a three-touchdown performance.

We, at ITI, hate to be the bearers of bad news, but this Eagles team isn’t exactly out of the woods yet. They’re still struggling some on defense. They haven’t really satisfied all of their issues in the running game, and now we’ve been reintroduced to an issue we’ve seen from time to time.

Wentz, a mobile quarterback who’s been let down by his offensive line a lot in 2018, has a tendency to put the ball on the ground a lot.

Let’s look at some numbers.

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For his career, Wentz has 30 fumbles in the 35 games he’s appeared in. He placed the ball on the field 14 times as a rookie, but we forget that sometimes because he only lost three. He dropped the ball an additional nine times in 2017, but, again, we forget that because, just like in 2016, he only lost three of them.

At this point of his career, the most memorable may be his failed attempt to get into the end zone versus the Seattle Seahawks in a prime time game, but here we are, eight games into the 2018 season and some are having memories of that moment.

Sure, we all get all warm and tingly when we talk about his 13-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2018, but his is an issue not normally associated with quarterbacks. He just has a hard time holding on to the ball sometimes.

Wentz acknowledged the need to take care of the football on Sunday following a game where he threw an interception and lost a fumble, but with this being his third year in the league, how much can his mechanics be adjusted at this point?

He’s been playing his style of football forever. Would it be difficult to coach him out of that now?

How worried should we be that this might be an ongoing issue for a while? It’s worth asking the question, isn’t it?

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