When it comes to the National Football League, you typically are only as good as your quarterback.
Just look at recent seasons to verify that. The Los Angeles Rams won Super Bowl LVI with a red-hot Matthew Stafford. Super Bowl LV was won by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a guy you might have heard of, Tom Brady, leading the ship. The year before that, the magical Patrick Mahomes won his first and only title, guiding the Kansas City Chiefs to glory.
And then there are the Washington Commanders, who’ve largely been a laughingstock for the better part of two and half decades. They have just five winning seasons since the turn of the century.
The 2022 campaign figures to be no different. Washington rest uncomfortably in the cellar of the NFC East with a 1-4 record while every other team in the division has at least four wins and no more than one loss.
One of the reasons for the struggles has been the play of new quarterback Carson Wentz, who arrived in the offseason in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts. The good news is Wentz is tied for fifth in the league in touchdown passes at 10. The bad news is he is third for most interceptions with six and has the 24th-ranked QBR in the entire league.
Commanders coach Ron Rivera was asked why other teams in the NFC East have had success and Washington has not.
“Quarterback,” he said.
Yikes.
“The truth is that this is a quarterback-driven league,” Rivera said. “And if you look at the teams that have been able to sustain success, they’ve been able to build it around a specific quarterback.
“I think our quarterback has done some good things. There’s been a couple games that he’s struggled, but the way he performed [Sunday], it just shows you what he’s capable of. We chose him because we believe in him. We chose him because we looked at what we felt were things that pointed toward him.”
The way he performed shows you what he’s capable of? Yeah, throwing a game away. Wentz through a pick in the dying second of the game to saw a victory slip away. That is what he’s capable of.
Does nobody remember what he did in Week 18 last season with the Colts trying to make the playoffs and needing a win at Jacksonville to do so? They lost 26-11 to a team that was 2-14, with Wentz being mediocre, going 17-for-29 for 185 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
“We have some pretty good pieces in place,” Rivera said. “I’d like to have them all on the field at the same time. We don’t, we can’t, so this is the lot we have, so we have to go out and play.”
It hasn’t worked with Wentz.
“I’ve got no regrets about our quarterback,” Rivera said.
The Commanders may soon regret hiring Rivera. He’s been to a Super Bowl, but that was with MVP Cam Newton leading the way. Wentz is no Newton, and backup Taylor Heinecke, in all likelihood, isn’t the answer to get this team to stability, let alone the next level.
But Rivera isn’t either.
It’s time to give Heinecke a chance. He impressed in that playoff loss to the Bucs two seasons ago, and his running ability offers another dimension. But there is little doubt that in this offseason they need to be aggressive in pursuing their answer as the position. Until then, there will only be questions.
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