[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

In his latest column, Al Breer of Sports Illustrated wrote about the Wentz trade. I excerpted a few parts of the article - the link to the full article is below:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/02/22/mm...fice-tim-tebow

How the trade went down:

Soon after the season ended, Roseman and Wentz’s agent, Ryan Tollner, got on a call. Tollner and Wentz had debriefed, and Tollner passed along his own feelings on the situation, that he wasn’t sure Wentz would be at his best, for a multitude of reasons, in Philly anymore—and that the time might be right for the Eagles to get value for Wentz in a trade and Wentz to get a fresh start elsewhere.

Roseman responded that he wasn’t sure if he was open to it yet. But he gave Tollner the authority to feel out potential suitors. Tollner’s first call was the easiest one to make. Based on Wentz’s relationship with Colts head coach Frank Reich, forged by their two years together in Philly, the agent didn’t hesitate to reach out to Indy before anyone else.

The Eagles’ initial ask for the type of return Matthew Stafford brought the Lions drove some teams away, but also helped crystallize the field. Wentz’s camp knew the Colts were interested and believed the Bears would be making a serious run. Meanwhile, DeFilippo, now the Bears’ pass-game coordinator, who had been charged with working with Wentz on mechanics in Philly, communicated to the Chicago brass that he believed Wentz was fixable, and gave the team his institutional knowledge on the player and person.

The result: After monitoring the situation for a period of weeks, a combination of factors kept the Bears from making it to the stage where they put an offer in front of Roseman.

That left the Eagles and the Colts in something of a stalemate, where Indy had made clear how far it would go. The trust between the two sides—the Eagles obviously know Reich well, and Colts GM Chris Ballard and Roseman have a strong relationship—kept that stalemate from ever becoming contentious. Still, more than two weeks had passed since the Stafford trade, and plenty of back-and-forth had happened. That led Ballard to tell the Eagles early last week that he wasn’t willing to wait forever. His offer had an expiration date.

And thus, the trade got done.

For the Colts, the comp for the return was the 2013 Alex Smith trade. The Chiefs got him from San Francisco for two second-rounders that March, a couple months before then new Kansas City GM John Dorsey brought Ballard aboard as his top lieutenant. Smith, like Wentz, was 28 when he was traded and fresh off of being benched.

Coaching dynamics in the Philly locker room:

When Wentz was at his best, he had a good cop (Pederson), medium cop (Reich) and bad cop (ex-QBs coach John DeFilippo) working with him. After Reich left for Indy and DeFilippo for Minnesota post-Super Bowl, the Eagles promoted Mike Groh to OC, and Groh assumed the bad cop role. He and Wentz clashed and Groh was fired as a result, while Press Taylor, who Wentz was close with, ascended. As a result, perception in the building grew that the Eagles were coddling him, and that Wentz couldn’t handle hard coaching.