By Peter Gleason
The Eagles hopes of getting a No. 1 draft choice back for Carson Wentz, whom they traded to Indy on March 17, took a big hit yesterday.
Because Wentz did too.
Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald grabbed Wentz’s lower half and rolled, twisting Wentz’s ankle underneath him as he got the ball away for an incomplete pass.
Wentz limped off the field, throwing his helmet in frustration as he got to the sideline.
So did Eagles fans, because unless Wentz takes 75% of the Indy snaps the Eagles will settle for a No. 2 in 2022 instead of a No. 1.
“I could feel it underneath the pile right away,” Wentz said. “I think the guys around me could hear me yelling, because it was rolled up on pretty good. It’s definitely frustrating. Obviously, shouldn’t have thrown my helmet like that, but I knew at that point that I probably wasn’t going to come back out this game.”
Indianapolis inserted backup Jacob Eason, and he threw an interception that essentially sealed a 27-24 Rams win, dropping the Colts to 0-2. Eason was 2-of-5 for 15 yards with an interception.
When he was with the Eagles, a torn ACL ended his 2017 season; a back injury shut him down in 2018, and a concussion knocked him out of a playoff game in 2019. Two practices into his first training camp as a Colt, a piece of bone broke loose in his foot, and Wentz had to undergo surgery to remove the bone fragment. The injury cost him most of training camp.
Is the ankle broken?
“I don’t think so, but we’ll find out,” Wentz said. “I’ve sprained my ankle 100 times, probably since I was a kid. This one I just couldn’t play through at the end of the game. We’ll evaluate and do everything we can to get this ready to go for next week.
“I’m going to get this scanned as soon as I can and pray,” Wentz said. “Pray a lot that God can heal this thing and heal it quickly so I can be out here next week.”
“It did not feel good,” Wentz said. “Tried to tape it up, spat it up, do everything I could to get out there and finish the game. It’s a bad feeling to not be out there, especially in that situation. You kind of feel like you let the team down a little bit. It’s definitely frustrating, but it’s football.”
