https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...ts/6847471001/
NDIANAPOLIS — Six weeks after their season ended in embarrassment, the Colts have not changed their messaging on the starting quarterback position.
Indianapolis is not committing to bringing back Carson Wentz, the quarterback the Colts traded a first- and a third-round pick to get at this time last offseason. From the end of the season through March, the Colts have not said they will bring Wentz back as the starter.
And that leaves open the door for coach Frank Reich to be working with a fifth different starting quarterback in five seasons.
“I know I’m going to get a lot of questions about Carson right now. I don’t have a direct answer for you,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said in his NFL Combine news conference Tuesday. “(Jim) Irsay, Frank and I will sit down over the next 10 days and figure out where it’s going.”
The discussion, a discussion that Ballard acknowledged might begin with differing viewpoints, will over the next 10 days center on whether bringing Wentz back as the starter represents the best long-term answer for the franchise. When Indianapolis traded for Wentz last year, there was hope that he could fill that void.
"I believe in him, I stuck my neck out for him last year," Reich said. "I was a big part of that discussion last year. I believe he's going to continue to have a lot of success at quarterback. That might be here, that might not be here. That decision has yet to be determined."
The way the season progressed opened the possibility of Indianapolis making another move at quarterback.
Working under Reich, Wentz was able to bounce back somewhat from his disastrous final season in Philadelphia by throwing for 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions, 3,563 yards and a 94.7 rating, the third-best of his six seasons as a starter.
But Wentz’s lack of accuracy, his decision-making and a penchant for ignoring the short throw in favor of trying to make the big play cost the Colts’ passing game deeply, and by season’s end it had become the team’s Achilles heel. Indianapolis finished 26th in the NFL in passing, and Wentz’s play got worse as the season progressed, even though defenses increasingly stacked the box to stop All-Pro running back Jonathan Taylor, who became the overwhelming focal point of the offense.
W entz’s play cost the Colts dearly in the final two weeks of the season. Playing behind Taylor and an opportunistic defense that finished second in the NFL in takeaways, Indianapolis came back from a 1-4 start to get to 9-6, a spot that looked like a sure playoff berth.
"Ultimately, we didn't win as a team. I'm not putting this all on Carson," Reich said. "We didn't win the big game, the must game, the gotta-have game. ... When you go 9-8 and miss the playoffs, those are the questions that have to be answered."
The Colts collapsed in winnable games the final two weeks against the Raiders and Jaguars, and Wentz struggled mightily in both games, completing a collapse that beganhalfway through the season.
Wentz’s salary cap hit is more than $28 million, but the Colts would be able to get rid of all of that figure if they traded Wentz; and if they released the quarterback outright, they’d save $13 million against the cap, even though they would take a $15 million dead hit.
Ballard, and the Colts at large, have made it clear this offseason that the costs — both Wentz’s current salary and the draft picks Indianapolis gave up to get him — would not keep them from making a move at the position.
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“Don’t let it,” Ballard said. “You always do what you think is the best with the information at the time. I don’t ever worry about what we gave up or what we didn’t. We make the best decision going forward. Whatever the repercussions of that are, they are, and we deal with them and we figure out how we can move forward.”
The Colts have also made it clear the team will not make a decision simply to preserve continuity at a position that has been a revolving door since Andrew Luck's retirement two weeks before the start of the regular season.
"Whatever ends up happening, whether it's five in five years or Carson's back, however that decision ends up playing out, you play the hand that you're dealt, and you just try to play a winning hand," Reich said.
The Colts are aware that their decision to avoid committing to Wentz publicly will be noted by the quarterback himself. Ballard met with Wentz for an hour on Tuesday, and said that one of the things the quarterback must do is acknowledge that some of the criticism around his play is warranted.
What I think you always have to ask yourself. … is the criticism fair?” Ballard said. “I’ll take it in if it’s fair. If it’s not fair, then what am I doing? I’m not wasting my headspace on that, but if the criticism is fair, then we’ve got to be able to look internally and accept that and grow from it. I’m not saying all of it is, but most of it’s pretty fair. It’ll be interesting to see how he grows from this. I think he will.”
The ability to handle adversity and criticism, remain steady and keep playing well, is critical to the position.
So critical that Ballard singled it out as the most important trait a quarterback has to have in today’s NFL.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to have a guy you believe in, and you can win with,” Ballard said. “That will play some into it, but ultimately, we will make the decision that we think is best, both in the short and the long-term