It’s well-established at this point that the entire Eagles offensive unit has stunk up the joint in 2020.

The line hasn’t been great, the receivers aren’t playmakers, the running back has put the ball on the ground and dropped passes, and the #1 tight end was playing at a subpar level prior to injury. As Jason Kelce once, said “it’s the whole team!”

There’s this narrative going around that Carson Wentz isn’t well-liked within the Eagles’ locker room. A lot of that stems from the Joe Santoliquito article of two years ago, which was proven to be somewhat true when Wentz admitted that he may have some hurdles to overcome in the leadership and selfishness departments. We also had the Nick Foles “shrine” and some other comments here and there suggesting that the players seemed to prefer Foles to Wentz, though we didn’t necessarily have concrete evidence to prove it one way or another.

That said, some of the responses to Carson’s benching this week have been rather blunt, in a supportive way, and as a sampling we got the following from Miles Sanders, via Dave Zangaro at NBC Sports Philadelphia:

“It’s messed up, kinda, because you know, the guy that’s probably feeling the most and taking the most heat is Carson, but at the end of the day, this whole offense has a part in the reason why we are the way we are,” Sanders said.

“Even me, my fumble, dropped passes and some missed blocking assignments, I obviously have to tighten up my game also. Everybody, collectively as an offense has to put everything together, it’s not just on the quarterbacks.”

Jason Kelce went to bat for Wentz earlier in the week, throwing criticism at everybody, even the front office and coaching staff:

And Fletcher Cox straight up admitted that he thinks Wentz should still be the starter:

That’s all good and well, and these guys aren’t wrong. The entire team has been mostly pitiful this year.

The problem is that you don’t create a spark by benching the starting center, running back, or defensive tackle. You sit the quarterback down, because that’s the needle mover. That’s the move that tells the fanbase “this isn’t good enough and we’re making a change.” It doesn’t mean it’s necessarily fair, but that’s how it goes.

This would all be different if Carson would just connect on some easy throws or do things to help his situation, but he doesn’t. He’s missing easy stuff and threw a ton of interceptions this year. He fumbled the ball. He tried to play hero football when he didn’t have to. Regardless of the screw ups at every other offensive position, and in the coaching ranks, the quarterback has also played poorly, and that’s why he’s sitting on the bench. It doesn’t mean his career is over, but he’s taking the short term bullet in hopes that next year is much different.