The Indianapolis Colts are on the clock.
On Sunday, the Colts laid an egg and coughed up their chance at an AFC Wild Card, losing to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, 26-11, thanks in part to a pair of Carson Wentz turnovers.
Now the quarterback’s future in Indy is very much uncertain. According to former agent Joel Corry, “If the Colts are going to dump Carson Wentz, it needs to be before the 3rd day of the 2022 league year (3/18) when the remaining 7M of his $22M base salary is fully guaranteed & injury guaranteed $5M roster bonus is due. The $15M already fully guaranteed doesn’t have an offset.”
On Thursday, Colts general manager Chris Ballard was noncommittal at best when talking about Wentz’s future. Per ESPN’s Mike Wells:
“I’m not going to make a comment on who is going to be here next year and who is not. We’ve got a lot of good players and a lot of good pieces. You’ve got to have stability at the QB position, and he has to play up to his potential.”
On Monday, head coach Frank Reich was asked if Wentz will be the team’s starting quarterback in 2022. Per USA Today:
“We loved the team we had this year, we knew everyone we brought in this year, we expected to play winning football,” Reich said instead. “Next year’s roster will be next year’s roster. I don’t want to open it up about one player and then start talking about all of them. ... We’ll take it piece by piece. We’ll evaluate (Wentz’s) play. We’ll evaluate how we’re coaching him, how I’m coaching him, with each position in the pass game. Take it apart piece by piece, and then put it back together. ... We’ve got to be better in the passing game. It was definitely below our standards, and there’s multiple reasons for that. We have to take ownership of that as coaches and players.”
Ouch.
Reich’s comments came hours after Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel speculated the Wentz-Reich relationship could be doomed.
Hang on. This is important. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part – you know how I feel about Carson Wentz, and if you don’t, try Google – but Frank Reich didn’t seem enamored with Carson Wentz after the game, and Wentz didn’t exactly have Reich’s back, either. Look, if I’m misreading what they said about each other, so be it.
On top of that, NBC Sports NFL insider Peter King also questioned Wentz’s future in Indianapolis, calling the QB his goat of the week.
In his biggest game as a Colt, Wentz came up so small. And needing one win in the last two weeks to get the Colts to the playoffs, he lost to the Raiders at home and the Jags on the road. No wonder the Colts were so crestfallen after this game. “Wentz was an albatross around the neck of the offense in three of the final four weeks,” wrote Bob Kravitz in The Athletic on Sunday night. And that’s not going away. Wentz came to Indianapolis to solve the quarterback problem. All he’s done is exacerbate it.
The Wentz-Reich relationship dates back to their time together with the Eagles. Under Reich’s guidance as offensive coordinator, Wentz blossomed into an NFL MVP candidate before injuries derailed his time in Philadelphia.
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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.
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