The Philadelphia Eagles made it clear they had their quarterback when the team allowed Nick Foles to walk during free agency.
And if there was any doubt from those outside of the Eagles‘ headquarters, executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman left no room for ambiguity that Carson Wentz was his guy.
More important, Roseman made it clear during a news conference with reporters at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix that locking down Wentz for the long haul remains a priority.
"We have a quarterback that we want to pay, that we want to extend long term, too, and how we’re going to build our team with that player, which is exciting for us," Roseman said, via the Eagles’ official website. "We want to have a team led by a franchise-type quarterback. We know that we have that in Carson, and so now what are we going to do around him to make sure that we can continue to try to compete for championships?"
Wentz, the Eagles‘ first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, enters the final year of his contract, which pays a base salary of $720,000. The Eagles, however, clearly want to take care of Wentz with a bigger contract to keep him in Philadelphia.
Short of a contract extension in the coming months, the Eagles could also elect to use a fifth-year option on Wentz no later than the league-wide deadline on May 3. In the event of that move, Wentz’s salary in 2020 would be determined by his draft slot — in his case, the No. 2 overall pick in 2016 — and position played.
Meanwhile, Wentz has battled injuries the past two seasons, missing eight games over that span. He suffered a torn ACL in 2017 and the signal-caller’s 2018 season was shortened after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back.
Roseman declined to answer questions from reporters on Wentz’s status, but expressed optimism in the recovery process for the 2019 season.
He also didn’t want to get into specifics on the thought process behind the timing of extending Wentz, preferring instead to keep any details on where the talks are heading private.
"It’s important to us that we have relationships with our players where we keep things in-house, and contract talks are a big part of that," Roseman said. "So, for us, we’ll keep that. But, obviously, having Carson here long term is our goal, and we’ll work toward that."
Since joining the Eagles in 2016, Wentz is 23-17 as a starter and has thrown for 10,152 yards and 70 touchdowns with 28 interceptions, adding 542 yards rushing and two touchdowns.