Reich praises Wentz less than a month after trading him

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — Less than three weeks after Indianapolis threw in the towel on the Carson Wentz experiment, Colts head coach Frank Reich didn’t have a bad thing to say about his former quarterback.

At least not publicly.

Speaking to reporters at the NFL’s annual league meetings on Monday morning, Reich actually praised Wentz and said he expects big things from him in Washington.

“You guys know how I feel about him. I love the guy. I really do,” Reid said. “I think he’s a really good quarterback. I think he’s going to play really well for the Commanders.”

The Colts shipped Wentz to Washington earlier this month for a package of draft picks just one year after they gave up an eventual first-rounder to Philadelphia to get him.

The Wentz-Reich reunion was supposed to get Wentz’s career back on track. Last offseason, when Wentz made it clear that he no longer wanted to be in Philadelphia, the Eagles traded their once franchise quarterback and former No. 2 overall pick to the Colts.

As Reich said at the combine, he “stuck his neck out” to get his team to trade for Wentz. If anyone was supposed to be able to fix the former MVP candidate, it was his former offensive coordinator from Philly.

It didn’t happen. And the Colts pulled the plug after just one season.

So why didn’t things work out in Indianapolis?

“It’s 2022, not everything has a storybook ending,” Reich said. “Those are the decisions an organization has to make, the leaders of an organization has to make. Mr. (Jim) Irsay, Chris (Ballard) and I sat down and that was just the decision we thought was best for our team at this point.”

Wentz, 29, didn’t have a bad season statistically. He played in all 17 games, completed 62.4% of his passes for 3,563 yards with 27 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Not elite numbers, but not enough to force the Colts to move on from him and go back to the drawing board at quarterback for sixth straight season under Reich.

So what happened?

“Sometimes you can’t explain everything,” Reich said.

Wentz really struggled down the stretch. And in a must-win game against Jacksonville laid an egg and the Colts missed the playoffs. But even that doesn’t seem like the whole issue.

It’s impossible not to think about some of the personality issues that arose in Philadelphia. That Wentz didn’t connect with all of his teammates. That he wasn’t coachable. That his Type A personality ended up being more of a hinderance than a positive.

Good luck, Commanders.

Maybe it will work out for Washington as they bring Wentz back to the NFC East. Reich mentioned that some folks say that Wentz’s 2017 season shouldn’t be brought up anymore, but he pointed out that Wentz was very good in 2019 and that there were some moments where he was very good with the Colts last year.

“They’re getting a player, who, first of all, a highly intelligent player, who can process a lot of information quickly,” Reich said. “You’re getting a guy who physically is a prototype NFL quarterback. You’re getting a guy who I think can be a top 10 quarterback. I really believe he can be a top 10 quarterback. That’s not just a given. That has to be earned, so we’re all hoping that happens for him.”

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Even Doug Pederson, a few feet away, wouldn’t say a bad thing about Wentz either.

If you remember, there were reports late in the 2020 season about just how badly the relationship between the Eagles’ head coach and franchise quarterback, a relationship that was once likened to a marriage, had soured.

“They’re getting a tremendous leader,” said Pederson, now the head coach of the Jaguars. “They’re getting a really good guy that is going to lead that football team and he’s going to lead that locker room. He’s going to do everything on and off the football field to help that team win.”

At one point, it really seemed like all those things about Wentz were true. And Reich is right. It went beyond the 2017 season. In the last four games of the 2019 season, Wentz almost willed the Eagles into the playoffs.

When asked about his new quarterback Matt Ryan, Reich pointed out several things: Leadership, elite accuracy, consistency, the ability to carry his team.

At one point in Wentz’s career, it seemed like he had all those characteristics. But now his career appears to be at a crossroads.

How many more chances will Wentz get? This opportunity in Washington might be it.

Or maybe Ron Rivera will meet with us next year and tell us what a great player Wentz’s next team is getting.

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