Carson Wentz is the Eagles' Best Choice at Quarterback

Right off the bat, I want to start this post by saying that I was a huge Nick Foles fan during his first stint with the Eagles. I even wrote about him being the team's new franchise quarterback after guiding Philly to the NFC East Division title in Chip Kelly's first year as head coach. Kelly had other ideas and sent Foles packing and the rest is history.

Still in need of someone to lead the offense, new head coach Doug Pederson turned to Carson Wentz with the second overall pick of the 2016 draft. The rookie coach and rookie quarterback made their way through that initial season with a respectable record of 7-9. While there was some major room for improvement, there were enough highlighted moments to raise the bar for the 2017.

Wentz raised the bar through the roof as the frontrunner for MVP in his second season until he went down with a knee injury in Week 14. The Eagles turned to Foles and he delivered with his own MVP trophy in Super Bowl LII. Nobody questioned the fact that Wentz was the team's starter heading into this season. Super Bowl hangovers are real and the Eagles' aching head and upset stomach lasted deep into the 16-game slate. Even at 4-6 through their first 10 games, they were still in position to win the suddenly watered-down NFC East. Wentz was not at his best, but you cannot pin that disappointing start squarely on his shoulders.

Washington faded and Dallas got hot while the Eagles won enough games to stay in the hunt. Wentz went down again with a back injury and Foles rose to the occasion to lead another playoff run. Philly could have beaten the Saints, but the breaks did not its way. The offseason came quicker than we wanted, but all-in-all it can still be considered a successful season.

The way things played out with Wentz and Foles this time around has opened up the debate as to which player should be the starter in Philly. The Eagles have already made it clear that Wentz stays and Foles will most likely get another chance to start somewhere else in the NFL. I just hope that somewhere else is not Washington given its desperate situation at this position. The current buzz has the Eagles trading Foles to Jacksonville for Leonard Fournette. I would go with that deal in a New York minute.

The big question Eagles' fans should be asking themselves is Wentz's recent rash of injuries something to be concerned with moving forward. He will be heading into his fourth season with eight missed starts in two years not counting the playoffs. The question the fans should not be asking is can he lead this team back to the Super Bowl somewhere down the road. When healthy, he is a proven entity given his early career stats. The loss of Frank Reich to Indianapolis after serving as the team's offensive coordinator in that Super Bowl run cannot be discounted given his success this season as the Colts' new head coach. Wentz did not look nearly as comfortable running this season's scheme under Mike Groh.

There was no doubt that Foles was a better fit in this offense when he took over the starting role at the end of the year. He was also playing with a very high level of confidence given last year's success when the games were on the line. Nobody is talking about the team's 0-2 start with Foles under center. Once again, I believe in St. Nick, but not to the point where I would give up on Wentz so early in his career.

Let him get healthy this offseason. I mean fully healthy. Those fans touting Foles as the permanent solution at quarterback have no idea how severe Wentz's knee injury really was. In retrospect, he probably should have sat out the first half of the season. Maybe the back injury was a result of compensating for his knee? I still want to see what the big man from North Dakota State can do when everything is fully healed.

Over the course of this season, time after time across the entire league it was proven just how valuable a legitimate starting quarterback can be to the overall fortunes of his team. Wentz is that kind of guy!

Just go back to Week 14 of last season against the Rams and ask yourself who you would want to have under center. My answer at that point would have been Wentz as an obvious no-brainer and nothing has changed since that unfortunate touchdown blew out his knee.