Carson Wentz’s shoulder surgery was a “when, not if” kind of situation, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback explained to reporters Wednesday.
The “when” arrived in the second half of a 37-10, painful loss to the Los Angeles Chargers last Thursday.
Advertisement
The left shoulder injury, which he first suffered during a Week 5 win over the Cleveland Browns in London on Oct. 5, became unbearable in Week 8 for a visibly frustrated Wentz, who clarified Wednesday that it was his call to finish the blowout defeat to the Chargers.
He doesn’t believe he should have been taken out to relieve himself of the discomfort late in the game.
“I never once felt unsafe,” Wentz said.
“It’s just pain. It’s pain, it’s discomfort. I knew surgery was coming, I knew it needed to be fixed. So it was like, ‘I don’t want to come out of this game as uncomfortable as this is.'”
Advertisement
Wentz added: “This isn’t my first rodeo. I’m not an idiot. I know what I was signing up for going out there. Nobody was forcing me, pressuring me, any of those things. Anybody in this building, everybody’s handled this tremendously. Communication’s been phenomenal from coaches, trainers, all the things.”
The soon-to-be 33-year-old Wentz started five games in the absence of J.J. McCarthy. The second-year Vikings quarterback will make his first start since suffering an ankle sprain in Week 2 when Minnesota plays the Detroit Lions on the road Sunday.
Wentz, once the Philadelphia Eagles’ franchise quarterback who has since bounced around the league as both a starter and a backup, went 2-3 in McCarthy’s place. He helped Minnesota beat the Cincinnati Bengals and the Browns and threw for more than 300 yards in one-score defeats to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Advertisement
He was playing for the NFL team he grew up rooting for before he ascended to star status at North Dakota State, where he became a top-flight draft prospect.
But Wentz’s turn as the Vikings’ starter wasn’t quite storybook.
“After the Browns game, we knew surgery was in the future, which was obviously a bummer in and of itself,” he admitted Wednesday.
“It’s never fun. I’ve had more [surgery] than I care to have over my career, but it was one of those things [where] let’s see how long we can ride with this. It was never anyone forcing me. It was never any of that.”
Advertisement
Wentz said that the injury was “bearable” against the Eagles in Week 7. But the short week made playing through the pain in his non-throwing shoulder more difficult.
Against the Chargers on “Thursday Night Football” in Week 8, he wore a large brace on his left arm akin to the ones linemen and linebackers sometimes don. He winced in pain as he took hit after hit. Wentz was sacked five times and, according to PFF, was pressured on 17 of his 32 dropbacks.
“I think the frustration that you might’ve saw on the sideline was me knowing I’m probably not playing again this year,” Wentz said. “So there was a lot of emotions there mixed with the pain and all the things.”
Wentz then noted, regarding his season-ending surgery: “So we knew what was coming. We just didn’t know when.”
Advertisement
Wentz said he was in constant communication with the trainers during the Chargers game. He was complimentary of their work, too.
The one-time Pro Bowler drilled home the point that, as a competitor, he didn’t want to press pause on his run as the Vikings’ starter. With studs on offense, he was always aiming for a comeback. Plus, candidly, he discussed how he didn’t want to give up the keys to the offense.
“I was a backup for the last couple of years,” Wentz said. “So just being back in the role of starting meaningful football games, it’s fun. I’m not going to lie. It’s fun.
Advertisement
“It’s what I grew up dreaming of doing. And when you lose it for a little bit, it’s hard to want to give it up. So even with pain and all the things that I knew kind of were going to come with, it was, ‘I want to play. I want to be out there, and I want to be helping this team however I can.'”
Now McCarthy is back, and surgery is up next for Wentz, who believes he’ll be healthy and ready to roll by OTAs but is currently taking things one day at a time.
At the moment, his thoughts are with his wife. They’re expecting another daughter.
“Life’s a lot bigger than this,” Wentz said. “Any minute or day, I’m about to have my fourth little girl, and surgery’s on deck. So all the things that are so much bigger than this are really occupying my mind and time.”
Read the full article here
