Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was on his way to a terrific rebound season in 2018 before another injury reared its ugly head, with a back issue this time knocking Wentz out of action after 11 games.

That marked the second straight year that an injury ended Wentz' season prematurely, as a torn ACL abbreviated his MVP-caliber 2017 campaign.

Before Wentz went down this past season, he had thrown for 3,074 yards, 21 touchdowns, and seven interceptions while completing 69.6 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 102.2.

While the obvious answer as to what Wentz can improve upon in 2019 is merely staying healthy, that is mostly beyond his control, regardless of the fact that he hired a nutritionist.

Ignoring the health component, let's focus on one thing Wentz can really do to take that next step this year, and that thing is maintaining the level of passing precision he developed in 2018.

Going into last season, the primary blemish on Wentz was his throwing accuracy. Even during his breakout 2017 campaign, he completed just 60.2 percent of his passes, which was mainly due to shaky footwork and his penchant for trying to rely on his arm strength.

Wentz may have been able to get away with simply letting it fly at North Dakota State, but that isn't going to work against professional defensive players.

The good news is that Wentz took major steps in improving in that area this past year, as he completed nearly 70 percent of his passes. That was a massive difference from 2017 and was almost a 10 percent change in the right direction.

Now, the key for Wentz is to keep that going in 2019.

With a deep threat like DeSean Jackson now in the fold, it might be easy for Wentz to fall back into his old habits of forcing throws down the field, but Wentz needs to realize that he still needs to make the smart play, even if a burner like Jackson is now on the team.

One positive thing about Wentz here is that even though he has struggled with accuracy, he has never really had a big issue with turnovers. He was on pace to throw just 10 interceptions this past season, and in 2017, he threw just seven picks in spite of his pedestrian completion percentage.

So, it's not like Wentz is trying to fire passes into double coverage, and his misses aren't costing the Eagles too dearly.

But there is something to be said for extending drives and making key, short throws to make third downs easier, and the more accurate you are as a passer, the more inclined you will be to become that dependable third-down guy.

At this point, we really don't know if Wentz is truly an elite quarterback. We have seen flashes, but he hasn't been able to stay on the field long enough, and he hasn't established enough of a track record as a result.

That's why we don't know if Wentz's sudden spike in completion percentage in 2018 was a mirage or the real deal. In order to take that next step and ascend into the upper echelon of NFL signal-callers, Wentz needs to show us that he can do it again, and that he can do it over the course of a full 16-game season.