It’s been a rough week for the Colts. Just under a week ago, it was announced that Carson Wentz would miss “5-12” weeks due to foot surgery.
Breaking: Carson Wentz will undergo foot surgery, Colts head coach Frank Reich announced.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 2, 2021
Wentz will miss 5-12 weeks. pic.twitter.com/saU02byev8
To make matters even worse, All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson is sidelined from the same surgery. With the start of the NFL season just a month away, these injuries came at an unfortunate time. I argued that the Colts should make a trade for a quarterback to save their season or to (maybe) make a call to Philip Rivers and see if he’ll unretire. Either way, the Colts are in a rough position.
However, in a recent press conference with Bear’s third-string quarterback Nick Foles, he all but lobbied for the Colts to come and trade for him.
A fired up Nick Foles talks about Frank Reich, Carson Wentz, what he wants in a trade, and more.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 2, 2021
Foles: “The version of me right now is much better than the version that played in the Super Bowl … Put that through your mind.”
This is worth the watch…pic.twitter.com/zVpsluax2l
While Nick Foles was not one of the quarterbacks I named as a trade candidate for the Colts, he’s a decent option. Quarterbacking under Frank Reich and Dough Pederson for the Eagles, we saw the second-best stretch of Nick Foles’s career. He went 3-0 in the playoffs beating the Falcons, Vikings, and the Super Bowl runner-up New England Patriots.
He threw for 971 yards, six touchdowns to one interception, completed 74% of his passes, and averaged a passer rating of 115.9. Not to mention he caught the infamous touchdown pass as part of the Philly Special.
There’s no doubt if anyone can get the best out of Nick Foles, it’s Frank Reich. However, if the trade were to take place, it could do more damage than good.
The Carson Wentz Problem
It’s no secret that Nick Foles is a big reason why Wentz fizzled out in Philadelphia. Wentz went down with a season-ending injury and had to watch Nick Foles lead his team to a Super Bowl victory. Something Wentz most certainly believes he could’ve done. The following season, Wentz, once again, ended his season early due to injury and watched Nick Foles beat the Bears Wild Card Weekend. One Nick Foles shrine in the Eagles locker room later Wentz’s relationship with the Eagles was forever strained.
Two seasons later, the Eagles traded Wentz to Indy, where he’s now injured again. Given how stacked the Colts roster is, you’d think they’d make a trade given the cheap, available options. However, it appears that second-year quarterback Jacob Eason and the rookie Sam Ehlinger will compete for the starting job in Indy. Neither has seen regular-season action, so we can’t know for sure how they’ll perform as the lead signal-caller. But if you’re Frank Reich, why would you not trade for a veteran you’ve won with?
More Trouble Than He’s Worth
Early on in the 2020 NFL season, the Eagles looked like a disaster. They were ravaged by injury, Carson Wentz was playing like the worst quarterback in the league, and as we later found out, there was a ton of tension between ownership and the head coach. Numerous reports indicated that Wentz wasn’t happy the Eagles drafted Jalen Hurts and didn’t want his job security to be in question. Towards the end of the season, the Eagles benched Wentz and went forward with Hurts, signaling the end of “Wentzylvania.”
In my mind, the Eagles traded Wentz to the Colts for two reasons. One, they were the only team that had an interest in him hence their low-ball offer. And two, Wentz would be reunited with Frank Reich. It made too much sense for both parties to make the trade. Unfortunately for the Colts, in trading for Wentz, they’ve inherited his injury issues, as well as his competitive fragility.
ESPN NFL analyst Louis Riddick commented on the possible Foles-Wentz reunion saying, “…you’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. You have to see this through and, hopefully, he gets back. Because you know this: If we go with the nuclear option, so to speak, it could just unravel everything, as far as bringing in a guy like Nick Foles.”
Quite frankly, the idea that the Colts should avoid trading for Nick Foles simply because of Wentz’s fear of competition is ridiculous. A franchise quarterback cannot be both injury-prone and severely insecure. The Colts have an outstanding roster (when healthy) and cannot afford to baby Wentz at the expense of the team. More than likely, the Colts could trade for Foles fairly-easily given that he’s the third QB on the Bears depth chart. Nonetheless, the Colts need to do what’s in the best interest of the organization and not Carson Wentz.
