Philadelphia Eagles legend Donovan McNabb dishes on Carson Wentz

One Philadelphia Eagles quarterback dishes on another.

If you’re like many Philadelphia Eagles fans, your last football memory of Donovan McNabb in a midnight green jersey was watching him play his imaginary air guitar on the way into Jerry’s World to lead his team to a 34-14 loss versus one of the three teams Birds fans hate the most. That was the final game 5 would play in an Eagles jersey and, though we didn’t know it at the time, that was also the final NFL playoff game of McNabb’s career.

Statistically, he’s the greatest player that the Eagles have ever lined up at the quarterback position. Historically, he’s remembered as the guy that led the Eagles to four straight NFC Championship Game appearances and five NFC Championship Game appearances total. He also got them to a Super Bowl.

Unfortunately, he’s also remembered as the guy who left unceremoniously and as the guy that fell out with Terrell Owens. What’s worse is, looking back, it can be argued that most of those issues were McNabb’s fault.

Fast forward, and the further we get from McNabb’s playing days, the easier it becomes to forgive him. He isn’t as hard to listen to anymore. Recently, he was asked his opinion of Carson Wentz‘s early-season struggles during an appearance that he made on Zach Gelb’s CBS Sports Radio show. As you might imagine, 5 was brutally honest and the commentary was less than flattering.

Here’s some of what was said:

"I am concerned. I’m concerned because to me, it seems he’s trying to do too much, and he’s trying to put really too much pressure on his shoulders because of the situation around him… If you watch the games, a couple (of) times (he’s) holding the football entirely too long, if you’re going to run and scramble and pick up yards, go. Don’t sit and fade and try to wait for people to get open. No, you don’t have the ultimate weapons on the outside to be able to create that much time."

It sounds simple enough, but it isn’t happening. So, with that being said, what’s the issue? Number 5 shared his theories on that as well

"To me, he’s trying to force balls into tight windows or trying to place it in places where he feels his receiver can get it (but) the DB obviously jumps into the lane… I would like to see him protect the football more, get back to the on-schedule plays, getting back to three-and-five-step drops and letting the ball go and trusting his receivers."

Okay Philadelphia Eagles fans, here’s the skinny!

In 2016, the belief was Carson Wentz would make us all forget about Donovan McNabb when he was taken with the second-overall selection of that year’s selection meeting. 11 was supposed to conquer every franchise passing record, many of which belonged to the man that started 158 of his 164 games as an Eagle (those numbers include 16 playoff games).

It’s year five of the Carson Wentz era, and he has yet to win a playoff game (or even finish one). We all know that guy we saw in 2017 is in there somewhere, but we need to see it now and more consistently because the guy taking the snaps right now for this Eagles team looks more like Ty Detmer than an MVP candidate. Carson Wentz is not beyond reproach. He has to be better.