Eagles

Donovan McNabb Elaborates on His Carson Wentz Comments

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 7th, 2019 · 10:52 AM EDT

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Donovan McNabb, the greatest quarterback in Philadelphia Eagles history, was on 97.5 the Fanatic this morning.

You’ll recall recent comments he made about Carson Wentz, noting his concern for the QB’s injury history and suggesting that the Eagles might want to draft a quarterback if Wentz doesn’t get the Birds out of the divisional round in the near future. Donovan clarified those comments after a backlash that included Lane Johnson referring to him as a snake and essentially accusing him of jealousy.

So Donovan was asked again about his Carson comments, with Marc Farzetta explaining that people took it negatively.

McNabb:

But my point is, why? Because I’m an analyst and a question is presented to me, I’m supposed to answer the way I see fit. Being truthful, right? I think a lot of times media members send mixed messages because they say one, players are not honest and upfront, then, two, when they are honest and upfront then it’s too much. Or, three, if sometimes when it’s certain people, we want to judge it or have a different type of emotional feel to their answer because of who it is. And that’s unfair. It’s unfair because, from a reality and business standpoint, if you’re not able to be out on the football field and contributing to your team on a consistent basis, which is the most important position to a football team, they’re gonna have the backup come in.

And if the backup is in too much, one thing you don’t want to have is your backup being out there really too much longer than you want him to be, then you’re gonna go out there and draft someone who you think can fill that void. That’s just the lay of the land. We’ve all been through it. Tra (Thomas) has been through it. I’ve been through it. The list of everybody that’s played in the past, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 100 years, these owners and presidents and GMs, they’re gonna find a way to either find a player less talented than you that they can pay less, or find two players that they can pay for the price they’re paying you, if you’re not contributing.

Farzetta then asked Donovan if Carson Wentz is a guy in whom Donovan would invest his future. Can he be a perennial MVP candidate?

More McNabb, after the jump:

The Carson Wentz I saw in his second season, as an MVP candidate? Absolutely. If he would have continued on these last two years, Carson Wentz would have been paid about $24 million dollars a year. The fact that he’s been hurt and he tore his ACL and didn’t really recover from that – because I remember I tore my ACL in 2007 – then the next year you come back and have a back injury that everyone thought you needed surgery, but you didn’t and you rehabbed it, then you come out and say a month ago that you’re not fully healthy from the knee injury from two years ago and you’re not 100% healthy from the back injury. So he could possibly be going into training camp rehabbing, or on the PUP list (physically unable to perform).

As a quarterback and face of the franchise, you don’t want to start your season without your starter. Say he does start, then he battles some injury all the way through, then week 10, week 12, he’s out for 2-3 weeks. People in Philadelphia are gonna start rumbling. They already have an issue that Nick Foles is gone. Probably 75% of the fans in Philadelphia are mad that Nick Foles is gone. So when I say something, it becomes an issue. But the reality of it all is that if you don’t have Carson Wentz out there, that’s not a good sign for the Philadelphia Eagles.

A couple things here:

1. I agree 100% with Donovan when he suggests that people are going to judge his opinions a certain way because of who he is. Whenever Donovan says something critical of a current Eagle, a portion of fans will just automatically accuse of him of doing the sour grapes routine, which is unfair.
2. I don’t know if 75% of Eagles fans are mad that Nick Foles is gone. I can’t put a number on it, but I feel like it’s closer to 50%, the number of people who felt like the Birds should have kept Nick around and done something else with Carson instead.
3. Carson’s knee should be 100% by training camp. I can’t imagine there’s an issue there. And there’s no way Howie Roseman would continue to talk about wanting to sign Wentz to a long-term deal if he wasn’t confident in the back fully healing by the time camp begins. Otherwise, the entire medical staff should find new jobs.

But it’s a good interview, and I don’t dismiss Donovan’s opinions outright, even though he sometimes says things that can be off-base. I personally don’t think he really “clicked” with Philly fans the way he could have or should have, but when your introduction to this fan base is 30 mouthbreathers booing your selection at the draft, I can understand why one might feel a certain way.