For most NFL franchises, missing on a quarterback selected with the No. 2 pick would set them back at least a few years. The Philadelphia Eagles turned a tough situation with quarterback Carson Wentz into four star players that each played a crucial role in their Super Bowl LIX victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
Wentz wasn't a traditional NFL draft bust, of course. In 2017, he was a bona fide MVP candidate, leading the Eagles to an 11–2 record before going down with a torn ACL. The team would go on to win Super Bowl LII, with backup quarterback Nick Foles leading Philly to a win over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Wentz would never regain his 2017 form, and was traded after being benched during the 2020 season, with the Indianapolis Colts sending the Eagles a 2021 third-round pick and a 2022 conditional second-rounder, which became a first-round pick after Wentz played 75% of the Colts' snaps in '21.
However, the full results of that trade weren't finalized until the 2024 NFL draft, and once all of the moves stemming from the Wentz deal were made, general manager Howie Roseman had turned Wentz into four pillars of the franchise's second Super Bowl title.
Months after the Wentz deal, Philadelphia sent their first-round pick (No. 12) and the third-rounder from Indianapolis to the Dallas Cowboys to move up two spots to No. 10, where they drafted wide receiver DeVonta Smith.
The former Alabama Heisman winner has a pair of 1,000-yard seasons in his first four years in the NFL, and caught four passes for 69 yards and a touchdown against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
a HOME COOKED 6-for-6 special 🧑🍳@DeVontaSmith_6 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/Bp5EVx3Q8l
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 10, 2025
Roseman's draft-day wheeling and dealing continued in 2022, when he used the Colts' first-rounder acquired in the Wentz deal (and an Indianapolis sixth-rounder acquired in a separate deal for lineman Matt Pryor) to bulk up future draft capital. Philadelphia sent the Colts' first (No. 16) and their own (No. 19) along with the sixth (No. 194) to the New Orleans Saints for the No. 18 pick, along with 2022 third- (No. 101) and seventh-round (No. 237) picks, a 2023 first-rounder and a '24 second-rounder.
The Eagles followed up those pick swaps by trading the No. 18 pick and the No. 101 picks from the Saints deal to the Tennessee Titans to acquire A.J. Brown, an established star wide receiver.
Brown and Smith have formed one of the NFL's top pass-catching duos, with Brown being named a second-team All-Pro in each of his three seasons with the Eagles. Brown caught three passes for 43 yards and a touchdown against the Chiefs.
24-0 Eagles 😳
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 10, 2025
📺: #SuperBowlLIX on FOX pic.twitter.com/gsuTXqeqi0
Those Saints picks continued to pay off at the 2023 NFL draft, where Roseman packaged New Orleans's No. 10 pick with an Eagles fourth-rounder to move up one spot to draft Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter. The 2024 second-team All-Pro has developed into one of the NFL's most destructive interior defensive linemen, and anchored a unit that dominated the Chiefs' offensive line.
Finally, during the 2024 NFL draft, the Eagles packaged the Saints' second-round pick from the deal two years earlier, along with an additional second- and fourth-rounder pick to trade up to the Washington Commanders' spot at No. 40, where they selected cornerback Cooper DeJean, an instant contributor who helped break Super Bowl LIX open early with a pick six off of Patrick Mahomes.
And of course, Mahomes's backup for Sunday's blowout Super Bowl loss was none other than Wentz, the quarterback whose struggles with the Eagles kicked off the entire string of successful deals.
Roseman has earned his reputation as one of the great general managers in recent NFL history. Rival executives should probably think twice before giving him a ton of draft capital to play with.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Carson Wentz Eagles' Trade Details Resurface After Four Pieces Help Win Super Bowl.
