Wentz throwing ball harder than ever before

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz said earlier this week that he isn't sure if he'll be ready for Week 1 following the torn ACL that ended his 2017 season.

Whenever his injured knee is healthy enough for him to return to game action, it appears as though his throwing arm will be ready.

Data collected by Zebra Technologies' player tracking system the Eagles had installed in 2014 indicates Wentz is throwing the ball harder, and more accurately, than before his injury.

"Those are things we track actually with the footballs and things that we have," head coach Doug Pederson said, according to ESPN's Tim McManus. "We can monitor that stuff. Velocity has been up, accuracy has been up. Those are the things he's been able to work on over the course of the year."

The tracking system includes tags in players' shoulder pads and a chip inside the ball to calculate biometric measurements, as well as the velocity and spin rate of the ball on throws.

Wentz had been in the mix of the 2017 MVP race prior to his Week 14 injury. Pederson says Wentz may be compensating with added attention to detail, leading to improvements in his overall game.

"He got better last year, obviously, in games," said Pederson. "To me it's all about eye placement, decision-making, accuracy, timing. It's all about the eyes and where you throw it and how you see it. That's one thing he's continued to get better at and work on. I do feel like now, because of the injury, he's focusing a little more on lower-body strength. It's really correlated to velocity and overall speed of the throw."