I like Ron Rivera.
I root for Ron Rivera.
I greatly respect Ron Rivera as a human being and a leader of men.
But my respect for Ron Rivera as the CEO of a professional football team no longer exists.
Because there is no possible rationale for giving up ANYTHING, let alone MULTIPLE third round draft picks, to acquire Carson Wentz as your starting quarterback. Carson Wentz, whose signature play has become flipping the ball casually to defenders on his own goal line. Carson Wentz, who two franchises, in two years, have been desperate to ship to Anywhere That’ll Take Him, USA.
I give you three tweets from Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports:
Text from a friend: “Lol why do ppl keep trading for Wentz”
I have no clue
— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) March 9, 2022
Carson Wentz was pretty good in ’17. But him going No. 2 overall in ’16 is an integral part in his maintain reputation as a player *some* teams believe is capable of being a high-level QB, despite much evidence suggesting the contrary.
Draft position matters, for many reasons.
— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) March 9, 2022
15-minute cool off period is over for me seeing the Wentz news, and I still can’t believe it
— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) March 9, 2022
There is enough data around this league to prove unequivocally that NFL teams are not run by competent individuals. And NFL personnel departments are nothing more than a collection of football junkies doing educated guesswork. There is no longer reason to show deference to these individuals because moves like this one for Wentz prove they simply don’t know what they are doing. Rivera has been in the league 40 years. His personnel department have 60 years or more of experience. How on earth could they have reached this inept conclusion?
A big reason is the ridiculous importance put on pre-draft analysis. The draft is a 50/50 proposition at best in the first round. Nobody, despite their social media confidence, has any clue who’ll transition well from college to the NFL. (That proposition gets worse and worse as the rounds continue.) But these organizations talk themselves into what they see on the college tape and seemingly never forget it. Somebody in that Washington personnel department undoubtedly turned to Rivera and delivered his useless “grade” for Wentz coming into the league.
Giving up anything to go all-in with a mediocre veteran QB never works. Giving up anything for Wentz, who would dramatically strain the definition of mediocrity, is malpractice. Andy Dalton is probably better. Mitch Trubisky and Marcus Mariota are more worthy a real second chance, with more potential upside, and little cost. Hell, is Wentz better than Taylor Heinecke? (I wouldn’t be in any rush to answer that question if asked.)
These organizations know they need a quarterback. But they don’t know how to find one. And when ill-equipped individuals are placed in difficult situations, they reveal themselves. The league is continually revealing itself as being run by incompetents. Most of the successful organization have luck to thank.
