Deep Rate: 22.50% | Passing NEP per Attempt: 0.63 | Success Rate: 38.38%
There are plenty of things that led to Carson Wentz's breakout this year. The Philadelphia Eagles beefed up the assets around him, and head coach Doug Pederson clearly knows a thing or two about running an offense. But Wentz's increased willingness to throw downfield certainly helped.
In his rookie season, Wentz went deep just 16.14% of the time, ranking 19th out of 30 quarterbacks with at least 250 total attempts. He sits third on this list with a 22.50% deep rate. He was essentially a whole new player.
Wentz is a great model in why we need to track offseason player movement around quarterbacks. The Eagles added Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith in free agency along with Mack Hollins in the draft. They were loading up on pieces that could help their offense's vertical attack game while shedding those -- Jordan Matthews -- who didn't work in that model. It's similar to what we saw with Jared Goff this year and Derek Carr in his second season. Surrounding talent matters.
Wentz's success this year has implications beyond just his own fantasy value. Assuming he's healthy, he should be fine and dandy in the future. But he illustrates why we need to pay attention to which teams invest in their pass catchers in the offseason. If a team starts bulking up at these positions, we need to take notice and adjust the way we view those offenses and players going forward.