With the Philadelphia Eagles at 0-2-1 this season, the struggles of quarterback Carson Wentz have taken center stage. In fantasy football terms, let’s look at what he’s done in the first three games (Yahoo! scoring, four points per passing touchdown, -1 for each interception for interception, -2 for a fumble lost)
Week 1 at Washington: 270 passing yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 1 lost fumble; 2 rushing yards-15 pts
Week 2 vs. Los Angeles Rams: 242 passing yards, 0 TD, 2 INT; 7 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD-14.38 points
Week 3 vs. Cincinnati: 225 passing yards, 1 TD, 2 INT; 65 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD-23.5 fantasy points
Wentz is QB19 in fantasy through three weeks. Two rushing touchdowns have offset his six interceptions, and the yardage and score in the ground in Week 3 accounted for over half of his fantasy points (12.5) on his way to a finish as QB11 for the week. One saving grace is Wentz is airing it out plenty, with at least 42 attempts in all three games.
Is It Time To Drop Carson Wentz?
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson had shrugged off the idea of benching Wentz, so barring an injury backup Jalen Hurts will only be sprinkled in for a few snaps per game. Here’s my obligation to mention how Wentz has not finished a season fully healthy since his rookie season in 2016.
Here’s a look at Wentz’s next five games, before a Week 9 bye, and each opponent’s rank in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks through Week 3 (Yahoo! scoring).
Week 4: San Francisco 49ers-27th (sixth-best)
Week 5: Pittsburgh Steelers-22nd (11th-best)
Week 6: Baltimore Ravens-8th (8th-worst)
Week 7: New York Giants-24th (9th-best)
Week 8: Dallas Cowboys-3rd (3rd-worst)
Baltimore’s ranking against quarterbacks is skewed by Patrick Mahomes undressing them in Week 3 (385 passing yards, 26 rushing yards and 5 total touchdowns). The Giants are in the bottom-11 in fantasy points allowed to both running backs and wide receivers, so something has had to give with quarterbacks.
For the next three weeks, Wentz is not startable in fantasy with any confidence. Unless you want to try to bet on some rushing production, and maybe a touchdown on the ground. If the Eagles handle the Giants as they should in Week 7, Wentz’s passing volume will be low. Week 8 against the Cowboys could be a high-scoring game, if Wentz doesn’t keep doing his part to derail the Eagles’ offense by that point.
Wentz’s ownership rate has fallen to 72.6 percent in ESPN leagues, and he’s owned in a lower than expected 78 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Replacing him with someone off the waiver wire doesn’t have to be hard (Joe Burrow? Ryan Fitzpatrick? Jared Goff? Nick Foles?), and with some down weeks coming Wentz is not that useful to his fantasy owners.
