Cowboys: Carson Wentz Is Perfect QB For Jason Garrett

Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett is challenged in many ways, so a future successor for Tony Romo needs to be smart player like Carson Wentz.

The Dallas Cowboys didn’t have to go very far on Saturday to see the potential future at a quarterback position that’s become more and more fragile over the past few seasons.

In nearby Frisco, Texas, the FCS championship game was taking place at Toyota Stadium for the sixth-straight season. For the fifth-straight year, North Dakota State University was there to win another title. For the third-straight year, quarterback Carson Wentz was the man under center leading the Bisons to another championship.

Having Wentz so close was a complete luxury for the Cowboys, the last-place team in the NFC East in 2015 with a record of 4-12.

There’s no doubt that Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett was taking close notes, a good thing seeing as how it’s a pretty safe bet that the ‘Chosen One’ will be allowed the privilege of trying to help develop a future prospect with more talent than he ever had on the football field. Let’s remember that Garrett was a career backup quarterback in the NFL that today can’t find one as a head coach.

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In this case, let’s hope that Wentz is that guy.

There’s no need to recount the backup-quarterback disaster that completely destroyed the ’15 campaign just after it started. Garrett’s inability to integrate Romo understudies Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel or Kellen Moore underscores the importance of bringing along a youngster like Wentz to eventually take the reigns for Romo, whenever that will be.

Saturday’s 37-10 blowout victory for the Bison’s marked Wentz’s first game back from a broken throwing wrist that he suffered back in mid-October against South Dakota. The fifth-year senior’s performance wasn’t his best, but that’s not exactly what representatives from all 32 NFL teams were there to see.

Important was simply getting the chance to watch Wentz in action, a privilege that wasn’t necessarily frequent this season.

Wentz accounted for three touchdowns, two of those on the ground, and he doubled his season total of interceptions with two at Toyota Stadium. Given the fact that the Bison’s still rolled, it’s a safe bet that those pics will be forgotten, especially given the fact that Wentz was just returning to action following more than two months of inactivity.

Remember what Romo looked like in his return from a broken collar bone against the Miami Dolphins in November?

Much the same thing for Wentz.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Wentz’s game isn’t so much his physique, which is tailor-made for the NFL. It might not even be his ability to protect the ball while also showing off a big arm and better-than-adequate mobility outside the pocket.

According to Adam Grosbard of the Dallas Morning News, Wentz was also named the NCAA Elite 89 winner for the third straight year. In other words, not only does Wentz bring all those great football intangibles to the field, but he’s a smart guy as well.

"Wentz is a potential-draft target for the Cowboys, who sent their scouting department to watch the quarterback on Saturday. He ran a pro-style offense and played mostly under-center while at NDSU. He possesses the size – 6-foot-6, 235 pounds – to make it in the NFL and the smarts – he was named the NCAA Elite 89 award winner for the highest GPA at the national championship game for the third-straight year on Saturday – to fit in well with a cerebral head coach like Jason Garrett."

In this particular case, Garrett landing Wentz should be an ideal situation. The combination of Wentz’s mental and physical qualities should make him a perfect fit for Garrett, a still-aspiring professional coach who didn’t exactly play a whole lot of football in the NFL.

Perhaps the fact that both of these players hail from lower levels of college football could also create some common ground, although I still feel like the combination of Romo and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, both alumni of Eastern Illinois University, could have been dynastic for the Cowboys in it’s quality and winning results.