Washington traded for Carson Wentz, and he'll be their starting quarterback in 2022. Will the third time be a charm for him? Things ended badly (after promising starts) at his first two stops, with a benching in Philadelphia and late-season meltdown for the Colts.
Wentz has also been criticized (on and off the record) by team officials on the way out the door in both previous stops, which is a concern, although that might be overblown and doesn't necessarily extend to his teammates (Darius Leonard, most notably, lamented Wentz's departure in a tweet). In general, I think, if Wentz can get back to his level of play in Philadelphia's Super Bowl year -- and I'm not promising that -- he'll have the locker room too.
I decided to take a look at the history of quarterbacks who have been brought in specifically as starters for at least three teams. There are a ton of journeyman quarterbacks who have actually played for three or more teams, and started games for each of them, but I wasn't looking for veteran backups who happened to find their way into the lineup for that many teams. I was looking for guys like Wentz who began their careers as starters and were then brought in to start for multiple additional teams. (Andy Dalton, therefore, doesn't count: Dallas signed him to backup Dak Prescott, not start. Ryan Fitzpatrick, similarly, was brought in as a veteran backup for most of the teams he started for.)
The most recent examples of these quarterbacks brough in as starters for three different teams haven't been good. They include Teddy Bridgewater, Alex Smith and Sam Bradford, and in most of those cases it wasn't very surprising when those guys didn't work out. Guys (like Wentz) typically cycle through to third teams for a reason.
There have, though, been a few that worked out pretty well over the years. Brad Johnson (Minnesota, Washington) won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay. Kurt Warner (Rams, Giants) got there with Arizona. Brett Favre (Packers, Jets -- I'm not counting Atlanta) almost did with Minnesota, as did Carson Palmer (Bengals, Raiders) with Arizona. Some other guys had late-career success and even got to Super Bowls with later teams: Chris Chandler, Rich Gannon. So it could happen.
Anyway, I came up with 11 different quarterbacks from the last 40 years who -- with their third teams as intended starters -- put up at least one season with top-15 fantasy numbers. Five guys did it multiple times, and would be considered the goal for Washington fans. If Jon Kitna and Kerry Collins can do it, why not Wentz?
| QUARTERBACKS PUTTING UP TOP-15 NUMBERS WITH 3RD TEAMS | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Age | GS | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | PPR | Rk |
| 1997 | Jeff George, Oak. | 30 | 16 | 290 | 521 | 3917 | 29 | 9 | 320.3 | 3 |
| 2006 | Jon Kitna, Det. | 34 | 16 | 372 | 596 | 4208 | 21 | 22 | 322.0 | 3 |
| 2008 | Kurt Warner, Ariz. | 37 | 16 | 401 | 598 | 4583 | 30 | 14 | 351.0 | 4 |
| 2015 | Carson Palmer, Ariz. | 36 | 16 | 342 | 537 | 4671 | 35 | 11 | 382.0 | 5 |
| 2005 | Drew Bledsoe, Dall. | 33 | 16 | 300 | 499 | 3639 | 23 | 17 | 293.0 | 5 |
| 2009 | Brett Favre, Min. | 40 | 16 | 363 | 531 | 4202 | 33 | 7 | 343.6 | 7 |
| 1998 | Vinny Testaverde, NYJ | 35 | 13 | 259 | 421 | 3256 | 29 | 7 | 295.2 | 7 |
| 1997 | Warren Moon, Sea. | 41 | 14 | 313 | 528 | 3678 | 25 | 16 | 293.9 | 7 |
| 2003 | Brad Johnson, T.B. | 35 | 16 | 354 | 570 | 3811 | 26 | 21 | 299.7 | 9 |
| 1998 | Chris Chandler, Atl. | 33 | 14 | 190 | 327 | 3154 | 25 | 12 | 285.0 | 9 |
| 2007 | Kurt Warner, Ariz. | 36 | 11 | 281 | 451 | 3417 | 27 | 17 | 286.4 | 10 |
| 2007 | Jon Kitna, Det. | 35 | 16 | 355 | 561 | 4068 | 18 | 20 | 283.6 | 11 |
| 2005 | Kerry Collins, Oak. | 33 | 15 | 302 | 565 | 3759 | 20 | 12 | 277.9 | 11 |
| 2000 | Vinny Testaverde, NYJ | 37 | 16 | 328 | 590 | 3732 | 21 | 25 | 277.8 | 11 |
| 2009 | Kurt Warner, Ariz. | 38 | 15 | 339 | 513 | 3753 | 26 | 14 | 292.7 | 13 |
| 2013 | Carson Palmer, Ariz. | 34 | 16 | 362 | 572 | 4274 | 24 | 22 | 310.0 | 15 |
| 2004 | Kerry Collins, Oak. | 32 | 13 | 289 | 513 | 3495 | 21 | 20 | 262.4 | 15 |
Personally, I'm not too optimistic about Wentz. I thought he'd bounce back nicely with Frank Reich in Indianapolis, and while there were moments, it didn't really work out. I'm expecting an up-and-down tenure in Washington, too.
But: he's a much better quarterback than Taylor Heinicke. It should be a nice upgrade in that regard for Terry McLaurin and the team's other skill players; the passing game should be better this season. So if you've got McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Logan Thomas, and perhaps Curtis Samuel or a piece of the running game, call it a win. That's something.
--Andy Richardson