During the past off-season, the quarterback carousel was a driving factor for the majority of football discussion. Between the potential for — and eventual selection of — five first round quarterbacks, along with the rumors about trades for Deshaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers, quarterbacks were the hot topic.
They often are.
Another of the quarterbacks that found a new home was Carson Wentz. After regressing, or as some might argue collapsing, during his final season in Philadelphia with the Eagles, Wentz was traded to the Indianapolis Colts, reuniting him with his former coach, Frank Reich.
When the move was made, Reich was quick to praise his former, and new, quarterback:
All you had to do, for me, was turn on the film in 2019, and with four games to go the Eagles needed to win out.
And not only did they need to win out, but in each of those games, as I recall, looking at the film, Carson had to play great in the second half and play a major role in that team winning those games in the second half. Now, they were team wins, they were team efforts, it wasn’t a one-man show. But Carson made the plays that a quarterback needs to make when you need to win four games in a row to make the playoffs.
He did that, and that wasn’t 2017. That was 2019. So in my mind, that just confirmed to me this guy still has it.
The relationship between Wentz and Reich was a reason for making the move, and the trade mirrored how general manager Chris Ballard had addressed the quarterback position the season prior. Speaking to Colin Cowherd after the NFL draft, Ballard had this to say about the trade for Wentz:
And then, when it came to Carson, it was a little like Philip [Rivers] last year. Frank [Reich] and Nick Sirianni had a really good relationship with Philip. He knew the offense and it was almost a seamless transition when he brought him in.
I almost see the same thing with Carson here over the first month and a half, where it’s a pretty seamless transition just because of his relationship with Frank, who also happens to be the play-caller. And I don’t think you could ever minimize how important that is.
The quarterback has to feel comfortable with who’s pulling the strings and who’s pulling the trigger, and that made the trade for Carson a lot easier because I knew there was the trust level between the two of them. Trust is everything in this league.
For a while, it looked like that trust was paying off. With just two games remaining, the Colts looked like a lock for the postseason. Indianapolis sat at 9-6 on the year, and the Colts had just defeated the New England Patriots and the Arizona Cardinals, two franchises that eventually secured their own berths in the playoffs. Jonathan Taylor emerged as an MVP candidate, and it seemed like the trade, while costing the Colts a first-round selection with Wentz reaching the 75% snap threshold, had paid off.
Then, the final two weeks happened.
Similar to Wentz’s collapse last season in Philadelphia, the Colts crashed themselves out of the playoffs. Needing one win in the final two games, Indianapolis first lost to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 17.
Perhaps one can explain that game away, as the Raiders also secured a playoff berth on the season’s final regular-season play. Indianapolis just needed to win in the season finale, against the Jacksonville Jaguars. A team destined to pick first overall yet again, an organization facing an outburst from the fan base that led to litigation from a sponsor, a team that fired its head coach midseason after reports surfaced that he kicked a player during training camp, a story that proved to be the last straw in a barnful of hay.
The Colts lost, and shortly after the final play their fate was sealed with results around the league.
That collapse has led to introspection among the organization, including this from Ballard today as he addressed the media:
"We got on a roll there and were playing really good ball until the final two weeks of the season…We have processes in place. I'm not going to overreact. But I'm pissed. We embarrassed ourselves."
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) January 13, 2022
Where do the Colts go from here? To try and answer that question, we need to look at the trade, at Wentz, and look ahead to the future.
