Much has transpired since the Buffalo Bills last crossed paths with Indianapolis Colts quarterback Carson Wentz.
For one, he has changed teams after losing his starting job with the Philadelphia Eagles.
But the Carson Wentz the Bills expect to see this coming Sunday when the Colts invade Orchard Park will be as good as, if not better, than the one who led the Eagles to a 31-13 victory in October of 2019. The Eagles' total would stand as the most scored against the Bills that season.
Despite how much Wentz was struggling to click with his receivers at the time, he was a surprisingly efficient 17-of-24 for 172 yards and a touchdown that day as the Eagles snapped a two-game losing streak to get their record back to .500 at 4-4.
Wentz is sitting with a .500 record (5-5) again this week but has been mostly solid in leading the Colts back from the abyss with wins in four of their last five games.
For the season, he's 213-of-334 for 2,378 yards and 17 TDs against just three interceptions and 18 sacks in 10 games.
"A really good player," Bills coach Sean McDermott told us Monday. "He was picked where he was picked [No. 2 overall in the 2016 NFL Draft] for a reason. Happy for him that he's found a spot in Indianapolis with a good coaching staff and players around him, and it looks like they're playing at a high level."
The rejuvenated quarterback is far from perfect, however, as Pro Football Focus pointed out in its recap of the Colts' most recent game, a 23-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Carson Wentz looked impressive early but failed to sustain that rhythm. He completed just two passes beyond 10 yards en route to a lowly 5.7-yard average depth of target. Wentz threw efficiently from a clean pocket but struggled otherwise, as he completed only 3-of-12 passes for 27 yards when pressured. Wentz finished with 180 passing yards on 36 dropbacks to complement a 78.1 passer rating.
Suffice to say that Wentz can be forced into mistakes when under a heavy rush, which is what the Bills plan with Greg Rousseau, Mario Addison, Ed Oliver and the rest of their deep defensive line.
Wentz is prone to sometimes spectacular improvisation, such as left-handed passes or shovel passes that aren't part of the script. But those are high-risk chances that can and have blown up in his face when not executed perfectly.
Colts coach Frank Reich, who also was Wentz's offensive coordinator for the quarterback's first two seasons in the league, has learned to grin and bear it.
"You’ve got to put some parameters, some guidelines on him, Reich told reporters this week, "but at the end of the day, you've got to trust the player and his instincts. It doesn’t mean you can’t coach him, it doesn’t mean you can’t tell him what you like and what you don’t like, but he still has to feel like you believe in him."
More must-reads: