Most casual observers of the NFL were surprised to see quarterback Carson Wentz enter Sunday’s game for the Vikings after Kyler Murray suffered a concussion on the third drive of the game. There’s another potential surprise in the pipeline.
If Wentz keeps playing well and winning, he could end up hanging onto the job even after Murray is cleared to return.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network floated that idea on Tuesday night. And it would be a stunner; Wentz was never in the competition to start, if the competition between Murray and J.J. McCarthy was even a real competition. (It likely wasn’t.)
Last year, when Wentz was playing in place of McCarthy, who suffered an ankle sprain in Week 2, there was a sense that Wentz could keep the job even after McCarthy was ready to play. The key factor in that was simple — Wentz and receiver Justin Jefferson had a more effective in-game connection than McCarthy and Jefferson.
A season-ending injury to Wentz’s left shoulder, through which he played for multiple weeks, ended that debate. This year, a fresh debate could emerge — if Murray can’t return for Sunday’s game against the Bears and if Wentz can engineer an upset at Soldier Field.
Rapoport calls the possibility an “excellent problem.” Still, the best problem is no problem at all. It won’t be easy to manage Murray if he believes he lost his job over a concussion suffered on the third drive of the opening game of the season.
In the end, however, it’s all about winning games. If Wentz keeps winning, maybe he’ll keep playing.
Either way, the Vikings have a pair of top-two draft picks who grew up rooting for the team. Murray, for now, isn’t healthy enough to play. Wentz is. He’ll get an opportunity to extend his run if he can continue to run the offense in a way that helps Minnesota score more points than the other team.
Which, in a numbers-driven league, continues to be the only statistic that matters.
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