In Carson Wentz, Commanders have confidence they’ve found the one

Suddenly, the peace of a spring day was filled with uncertainty and angst as he and his wife began to plan a new life. Again.

“This one, honestly, it caught us off guard,” Wentz said.

Wentz’s phone rang again. This time it was Commanders Coach Ron Rivera, who called to welcome him to Washington.

For the second time in roughly a year, Wentz was traded by a team that had initially traded for him. The Philadelphia Eagles moved up in the 2016 draft to select him, then shipped him to Indy five years later for two draft picks. The Colts cut ties after one season that ended disappointingly.

Wentz’s tenures at both stops have become known most for their bitter endings. In Philadelphia, his quick rise to the top of the quarterback echelon was met with a steeper fall. There was the knee injury that ended his MVP-caliber season in 2017, just before the Eagles went on to win Super Bowl LII. There was the back injury that followed, the then-record contract extension that failed to match his production and then the arrival of Jalen Hurts, a young quarterback who quickly supplanted Wentz.

Wentz’s relationship with the Eagles reportedly “deteriorated beyond repair,” prompting a trade request and his eventual exit.

Despite an impressive 12-game span in which he had the third-best passer rating in the league and helped the Colts go 9-3, Wentz was let go after the team imploded late in the year. In Week 18, the Colts came unglued against the miserable Jaguars and watched their playoff hopes vanish.

“I think the worst thing you can do is have a mistake and try to keep living with it going forward,” Colts owner Jim Irsay told the Indianapolis Star. “For us, it was something we had to move away from as a franchise. It was very obvious.

“The fit just wasn’t right,” Irsay added.

Washington, desperately in need of a QB, came calling.

Wentz arrived at the team’s facility accompanied by his wife and daughters — Hadley, now 2½, and Hudson, now 10 months. Rivera made it clear Wentz was “wanted,” and not just the latest quarterback they settled for. The Commanders agreed to take on his full salary and give up premium picks, they said, because they felt Wentz was the right fit — for their scheme, for their locker room, for their future.

“I can tell you we really kind of looked under every rock in that situation and evaluated every possibility of a guy who even might move,” General Manager Martin Mayhew said. “So we did our due diligence, and Carson was the guy that we had consensus on.”

Six months later, and one a week ahead of their season opener — against the Jaguars, no less — Commanders coaches and players continue to preach the same message about Wentz, often painting the portrait of a leader and a player on the comeback trail.

“You look at the last two seasons, playing eight quarterbacks over two seasons, he has stabilized that position for us,” Mayhew said. “And we’re excited about what he brings to the table in terms of his physical talent and also what he brings to the table as a person, as a leader.”

Fitting in with the Commanders

Since Rivera was hired both as coach and the unofficial fixer for Washington, he has rebuilt a roster tailored to his vision. Rivera had worked with former coordinator Norv Turner in Carolina to implement his version of the Air Coryell offense, and he hired Turner’s son, Scott, to bring his version to Washington.

But the offense has yet to click because it has yet to feature an experienced QB with the arm strength to stretch the field and the size to see over the rush.

Wentz, on paper, fits the bill. Rivera and Scott Turner both cited his play in 2017 and in stretches of 2021 as reasons for optimism, and they’ve both lauded his improvement in the offseason. Turner has tailored his approach to better fit Wentz by moving from the booth to the sidelines on game days to allow for more direct communication.

Wentz, 29, believes the comfort he felt in his first meeting with Rivera and Turner has further solidified.

“I’ve been in two different playbooks, but they were very similar. Philosophies were very similar,” Wentz said. “This one being a little different, it’s actually helped me grow in my understanding of the game because there is more than one way to do things, and whether we always agree on every nugget or not, it’s helped us both grow, I think.”

During organized team activities in the spring and the start of camp this summer, Wentz’s play appeared erratic. The rhythm had yet to set in, and his connection with top wide receiver Terry McLaurin especially needed work. Because of McLaurin’s contract holdout, the two had thrown together before camp for only a couple days during an offseason workout in California. By the end of preseason, the operation appeared natural.

“I think he’s going to continue to give us chances to make plays down the field,” McLaurin said. “He gives us a chance to really just play a little bit of backyard football, which is personally what I like about him.”

Commanders players say they’ve noticed Wentz making a concerted effort off the field in building a rapport with teammates, an area where he took significant criticism in the past.

“We actually just had a two-hour conversation on the plane ride,” offensive tackle Cornelius Lucas said of Wentz, who grew up in North Dakota. “He’s into hunting, he likes popcorn, and the guy is a fiend for gluten-free biscuits.”

Center Chase Roullier believes he deserves credit for that last part because he introduced Wentz to Buford’s Biscuits in Leesburg. Roullier has seen up close how dedicated Wentz is to his gluten- and dairy-free diet. During dinners with the offensive linemen, Wentz is picky about which appetizers he can touch.

“Granted, he’ll order, like, three steaks because the guy can eat more food than any quarterback I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Roullier, who says those dinners — and invitations to Wentz’s house — are ways the quarterback has built relationships with his teammates.

Wentz has made time for more than just his line. He and linebacker Cole Holcomb go golfing, attended the Preakness together and share meaningful conversations regularly. He competes with his fellow QBs in golf-chipping competitions between meetings. He even joined punter Tress Way on outings to escape rooms.

“He runs in an escape room like he does the offense,” Way said with a laugh. “… He doesn’t want hints. He wants to do it all by himself. … But we got out of the room every time.”

A new perspective

Wentz now plays with greater freedom.

He admits the noise of the past had a tendency to ding his confidence, but he has learned to cope. He has learned to be content.

Wentz has social media accounts but rarely uses them and says he avoids perusing. Instead, he asks Washington’s head of public relations, Sean DeBarbieri, to sift through the headlines and alert him only if something is important.

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t maybe make me feel a certain way when I was younger in my career,” said Wentz, who is entering his seventh season.

As he has navigated injuries and trades, rumors from those on the outside and stinging comments from those on the inside, Wentz admits he’s had to “fight” the times when the game was no longer fun for him.

Becoming a dad of two young girls has a way of changing one’s perspective, but the roller-coaster of the NFL has contributed its share.

Sometimes he thinks back to that call in March and the whirlwind that followed. He views it now as part of the “adventure” of his job, with the move to Washington a “pleasant surprise” for his family.

But more often he thinks about years earlier.

“I think of all the highs and lows and I still can kind of reflect and say, ‘Dang, I was a kid in North Dakota, and this was my dream and I’m still living out my dream,’ ” he said. “Yes, maybe I thought it was going to look different and my path would be different, but I’m still living out the dream I had since I was a kid, and not many people get that opportunity.”