Carson Wentz doesn't want his career with the Philadelphia Eagles to end at the moment. Wentz, who is the subject of trade speculation as his future with the Eagles is in doubt, is hopeful his situation with the Eagles can be fixed and doesn't want a divorce from the organization, per Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press.
Wentz hasn't discussed his future with the Eagles yet and has not spoken to the media regarding the ESPN report that his relationship with Eagles head coach Doug Pederson is "fractured beyond repair" and that he still plans to ask for a trade in the offseason.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has dodged questions regarding the future of Wentz with the organization, even with a contract that appears to make a trade difficult. The Eagles will only save $850,000 in cap space if they trade Wentz before March 20, two days after the new league year begins. They'll lose $9.1 million if they trade Wentz from March 20 to June 1, making a deal that much more difficult to facilitate.
"I don't think it's a secret that we moved up for him because of what we thought about him as a person, as a player," Roseman said to reporters Monday. "We gave him that extension because of the same things. And so, when you have players like that, they are like fingers on your hand. You can't even imagine that they are not part of you; that they are not here. That's how we feel about Carson."
The Eagles signed Wentz to a four-year, $128 million extension in 2019 -- $107.9 million of the deal is guaranteed. The first year of the heavy portion of the contract kicks in this year, but the Eagles have a way out of the contract in 2022 -- where releasing or trading Wentz saves them $6.7 million.
In theory, it would make sense for Philadelphia to hold onto Wentz for another season before making a decision on his future. Wentz still wants an opportunity to work this out with the Eagles, but do the front office and head coach feel the same way?
This is just the beginning of a long offseason in Philadelphia.
"We are talking about a guy that's immensely talented, has a great work ethic and doing whatever we can to put him in the best possible situation to be successful," Roseman said. "The things that you're seeing every day when he walks in this building is his work ethic, his leadership. He comes on the practice field when he was running the scout team and he's trying to destroy those defensive players. Those competitive juices are there and he's out there after practice, before practice, working on his craft. Those are things that you never take for granted when you talk about Carson.
"In terms of all the long-term implications of all this, again, I think it's so raw. I think that's all the things that we've got to discuss in the next couple weeks."
