Mike Mayock: Carson Wentz a better draft prospect than Sam Bradford in 2010
After the Eagles acquired the No. 2 pick in the draft, Howie Roseman acknowledged it was a "rare opportunity" for the Eagles to get a potential franchise quarterback. They seldom pick in the Top 10 – just once since 2001 – and the best quarterbacks usually come atop the draft.
The question is whether the Eagles valued the position so much that they forced the player. In other words, is Carson Wentz a top two pick in most drafts, or just in this draft with this quarterback group?
Count NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock among those who think Wentz would be this desired any year. He said Wentz and Jared Goff are "every bit in the conversation" with Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota from last season. He also thinks Wentz is a better prospect than Sam Bradford was in 2010, when Bradford went No. 1 and had a college career at Oklahoma that included a Heisman Trophy.
"When Bradford came out, there was a similar buzz. Coming out of Oklahoma, great Pro Day, blah, blah, blah, one of the more accurate college quarterbacks I've seen," Mayock said. "The issue was then and still now, very slight frame and injury prone. That was kind of the caveat that came with all the glowing reports.
"Six years later, that's still been his Achilles heel, because when he's healthy for long periods of time, he can get pretty good. He still has a good arm. He still throws the ball with accuracy. So I look at Carson Wentz, and I see a big, thick, athletic kid with an elite arm, all the intelligence in the world. If you're going to ask me for one negative, I would say, because he only has 23 starts, and I don't care about Division I, AA, but because he's only had 23 starts, that's less than half as many throws as Jared Goff. Less than half as many throws as Connor Cook. So he doesn't have as many reps. He needs to get the football. He needs to process information more quickly, and he needs to get the ball out more quickly.
"But that's part of the normal developmental pattern of just about any college quarterback, and I think he has the intelligence and work ethic to get that done. So if you ask me today who I'm more excited about as a first round quarterback, it would be Carson Wentz over Bradford from back in the day."
There was a bigger sample size to evaluate with Bradford. He took 893 pass attempts in parts of three seasons, starting 31 games. Wentz has 612 pass attempts and 23 starts.
Still, quarterbacks aren't usually pushed into the Top 2. Roseman pointed out that when the Eagles last picked in the top 10 -- Lane Johnson in 2013 -- there was not a quarterback to take. Since 1970, there have been 28 quarterbacks taken in the top two of the draft. Nineteen have made at least one Pro Bowl. Twelve were 10-year starters, with others on their way.