If we went into Merriam-Webster’s most recent version of the dictionary, we could thumb through until we got to “catch-22” and sketch a picture of Howie Roseman standing next to Carson Wentz and Jalen Hurts.

The 2020 Eagles now find themselves in a “problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem.” That’s how it reads in the book, which is really just a fancy way of saying you’re screwed. The Birds are going to have to suffer a negative consequence in some way, shape, or form.

But before we look at the current QB situation, we need to refresh ourselves on how we got here.

At the end of the 2019 season, Carson Wentz led a group of practice squad nobodies to four straight wins, a 9-7 record, and a division title. He was knocked out of the playoffs with a concussion, but the generally agreed upon “narrative” back then was that Carson had done a really nice job towards the end of the season and likely stepped out from underneath the long shadow Nick Foles cast over him in 2018.

We were under the impression that the Wentz/Foles thing had finally died its deserved death, and that the Eagles were going to go out and draft some receivers, a linebacker, a safety to replace Malcolm Jenkins, and add much-needed young talent on both sides of the ball.

Instead, they went out and used their second-round draft pick on a dual-threat quarterback and totally upheaved what had finally, only recently become a steady and stable situation. To make matters worse, they did this after having recently extended their franchise quarterback on a multi-year deal that will see him hit the cap at more than $30 million dollars over the next few seasons.

Now we’ve arrived at the catch-22, and let’s go one-by-one through the possible scenarios here to see which path is most feasible:

Scenario 1: Jalen Hurts plays well

In this case, you get needed improvement at the quarterback position while the 27-year-old, $30 million dollar franchise player sits on the bench. His trade value, of which there is very little to begin with, decreases to the point of nonexistence.

Scenario 2: Jalen Hurts struggles

Here you’d have Carson Wentz likely regain the starting job while your second round draft pick sits on the bench. You save yourself the embarrassment of having a $30 million salary being unused, but that selection continues to look like a waste, when you could have gone out and drafted one of Jeremy Chinn, J.K. Dobbins, Willie Gay, Denzel Mims, etc.

Scenario 3: Hurts struggles, Wentz comes in and also struggles

Well now you’re really up shit’s creek without a paddle. The worst case scenario is that Hurts looks awful in the Saints game and Wentz comes back in against the Cardinals but continues to play poorly. What now? Nate Sudfeld? Do you just try to get to the end of the season, fire one of Roseman and Doug Pederson and move on to next year? Some people might say that’s actually a positive thing, and you know what? They might not be wrong.

But the point of the exercise is to explain that there’s no magic bullet here. Regardless, they are going to find themselves in a situation where either a $30 million guy or a second round draft pick is on the bench. That is unavoidable and inexcusable.

The only way to truly salvage this and escape relatively unscathed is if Hurts plays well and the Birds can somehow convince Frank Reich to take on Carson as a reclamation project, to see if they can recreate the magic of 2017. Philip Rivers is 39 years old and on an expiring contract, and Indy needs to find a quarterback of the future. That situation could work for Carson, with a change of scenery combined with the fact that they’ve got some decent skill guys in T.Y. Hilton, Nyheim Hines, Michael Pittman, Jonathan Taylor, and Zach Pascal.

(Of course, even if you pulled that off, people would talk about how you extended a franchise QB only to draft his replacement and trade him away. It’s going to look bad no matter what.)

So that’s the reality of the situation. Whatever happens here, the Eagles can’t come out of this without criticism, without having to navigate some negative result, because the the framework of the dilemma is a set of conditions that are mutually conflicting.

And the saddest part bears repeating:

This was totally avoidable. They could have very easily gone out in the draft, took Jalen Reagor in the first round, and then gone safety/linebacker and perhaps took a flyer on a 4th or 5th round quarterback. Bring in a veteran backup. Do anything other than what they did, which was select Jalen Hurts in the second round. They mismanaged this draft so badly that they put themselves in a quarterback controversy and might get somebody fired at the end of the year.

They did this to themselves.