There’s a unique irony in Carson Wentz starting against the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns are going to face Carson Wentz on Sunday.

The Cleveland Browns will face off with Carson Wentz yet again on Sunday. In a rather funny bit of irony, the Browns will see the man they are forever tied to as they both start a brand new year. A new year of endless possibility, and perpetual disappointment. At least if your root for a Jimmy Haslam outfit.

The Browns have a lot to fix in 2023, a task that was already going to be hard but made even harder due to the team’s salary going up by $40 million without any new players joining the squad. They’ll likely retool the entire offense, replace much of the defense and possibly have new assistants to educate.

At least the one thing they don’t have to worry about is what to do with Wentz. For those new to the team, Wentz is a unique player for the Browns fandom to talk about because he was almost ours. To the surprise of no one, the Browns had the second overall pick in 2016, the year Wentz went second to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Browns needed a franchise quarterback, having just whiffed on Johnny Manziel.

And there was Wentz, sitting there for us in the draft. Yet, the Browns didn’t want him. In fact, current team leader and team CSO, Paul DePodesta declared for the world to hear that Wentz wasn’t going to be a top-20 quarterback.

I don’t know if I agree with that, Wentz is probably a Top 20 guy in the right system. He’s got a winning record for his career, was an MVP candidate, was a Pro Bowler, has a TD-INT ratio of 2.4:1, and generally puts up good stats. Sure, he’s not Tom Brady but he can get you to the playoffs.

Though, you need more than that to justify his draft stock.

Carson Wentz can get some “revenge” on the Cleveland Browns

Even though the Browns look right about him in hindsight, especially as Wentz has bounced around, playing for three teams in three years with a fourth on the horizon, it’ll be hard for the Browns to live down a loss to him.

The Browns are 6-9, facing off with the Washington Commanders who are 7-7-1. If Wentz comes into the game against the Browns in Washington and abuses the defense, there won’t be many people mentioning DePodesta’s quote.

Especially since DePodesta isn’t exactly in good standing with the Browns community after he let this team fall apart over the last two seasons. For Wentz, he needs a good game to justify trying to get one last starting gig for 2023.

Should Wentz beat the Browns, get the Commanders into the playoffs and go on to start for his fourth NFL team in 2023, then it might be time to retire not just DePodesta’s quote about Wentz, but DePodesta’s role with the team as well.