Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz has earned some admirers during the first two weeks of his NFL career. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin can be counted among them.
Ahead of his trip to Philadelphia to take on Wentz and the Eagles, the coach praised the rookie quarterback.
“Carson is doing a great job of making reads and getting them in good plays and maybe getting them out of some bad plays,” Tomlin said, via Jeremy Fowler, ESPN. “He’s showing great maturity for a young guy from that perspective in terms of the amount of communication he’s involved with… Those who are successful generally don’t play like rookies.”
Wentz has indeed been stellar. He’s completed better than 60 percent of his passes for 468 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 94.1 quarterback rating.
As a point of reference, those numbers are better than what Ben Roethlisberger generated through the first two starts of his career. Big Ben did have a superior 61.7 completion percentage but had managed only 337 yards with two touchdowns, one pick and an 88.7 rating.
Wentz has a long way to go to match Big Ben’s brilliant rookie season (let alone his career), but he’s off to a great start.
More than just the statistics, Wentz looks poised. He has complete control of his team, doesn’t seem rattled in the pocket and bounces back on the rare occurrence that something does go wrong. That’s generally rare from a rookie quarterback.
If nothing else, Wentz has gotten the attention of a Super Bowl winning coach who happens to be his next opponent. If a coach like Tomlin is so impressed with a player in public, one can bet that he’s spending many hours figuring out how to slow that player down.