Colts Trade for Carson Wentz Ended Up a Win for Everyone Involved

Zach Bolinger/Associated Press

It isn’t often a blockbuster trade works out as evenly as the Indianapolis Colts-Philadelphia Eagles swap involving Carson Wentz has so far. 

When the Colts acquired Wentz from the Eagles last offseason, sending a 2021 third-round draft pick and a conditional 2022 second-round pick to the Eagles, the consensus reaction was essentially a shrug. 

But with the 2021 regular season coming to a close, it’s clear both franchises have emerged major winners from the move, especially within the confines of each’s chosen direction and strategy. 

Look at the Colts.

Coughing up what was essentially a first-round pick (the conditional became a first-rounder if Wentz played at least 75 percent of the snaps) stings in almost any scenario. But in this one? Not so much.

With Wentz under center, the Colts are 8-6, just behind the nine-win Tennessee Titans in the AFC South and current owners of the fifth seed in the playoffs, but could always jump higher with two AFC opponents left and the Titans losers in three of their last four. 

We could talk about how this is a weird year for the AFC where 13 teams have at least seven wins. We could point to Wentz’s fine play. He has, after all, completed 62.7 percent of his passes with 23 touchdowns against six interceptions. His 95.3 rating is 13th. His seven yards per attempt is 21st. 

But those are nitpicks, especially when it comes to Wentz—most teams would love to have a passer like him on the roster. While he’s had Jonathan Taylor behind him running for 1,518 yards and 17 scores, wideout T.Y. Hilton has only made it into seven games and Parris Campbell just five. His targets have dropped 20 passes (4.8 percent) and he’s been pressured on 25 percent of his dropbacks. 

No, Wentz hasn’t rediscovered some of his prior elite form after reuniting with Frank Reich, the now Colts head coach who was his offensive coordinator for two seasons in Philadelphia. But the Colts are doing two important things with Wentz—contending now and getting a good evaluation of the offense with a capable quarterback. 

In theory, the Colts avoided the dreaded quarterback purgatory after a ho-hum season from Philip Rivers and the franchise got proof of concept for Reich’s plan and he can better roster build around a 28-year old former No. 2 overall pick. There isn’t a great rush, either, considering two members of the AFC South, Houston and Jacksonville, have combined for five wins this year and 23 losses while sporting two of the league’s most dramatic rebuilds. 

Instead of scratching and clawing at ways to find a new long-term starter under center, the Colts have one and merely have to build around him properly—while likely consistently qualifying for the playoffs. 

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

Now, look at the Eagles. 

Coughing up a historic $33.8 million dead-cap hit to trade Wentz stung, sure. But the rest of the balance on Wentz’s $128 million extension, including a $10 million roster bonus last March, went to Indianapolis. What they got back was a likely first-round pick and a chance to give Jalen Hurts a look as a full-time starter. 

Hurts, a second-rounder in 2020, did little in limited playing time as a rookie. He’s played in 12 games this year, completing 60.1 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He has rushed for 695 yards and eight scores, top marks on the team. He’s averaging 6.9 yards per passing attempt, a hair under Wentz, with an 83.9 rating, ranked 25th. 

Context is important, of course. Philadelphia’s rushing attack missed Miles Sanders for three games. DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert missed at least one game and the team traded Zach Ertz. Targets have dropped 4.9 percent of his throws and he’s been under pressure 24.5 percent of the time—while learning on the fly in what could effectively be called his rookie on-field season. 

The Eagles aren’t lucky enough to be contending while evaluating too, not with Dak Prescott back in Dallas and running the NFC East at 10-4. But the 7-7 record is good enough to place the Eagles in second place in the division and both Washington and the New York Giants aren’t any closer to finding the coveted and elusive long-term franchise passer. 

Where the Eagles should be looking is the projected draft order. There, they own three first-round picks—11th, 12th and 23rd. That last one keeps looking worse because the Colts keep winning, but having three, which means the ability to load up around Hurts or package them in a trade to move up inside the top 10, is hard to complain about. 

Whether the Eagles use all three to surround Hurts with more talent after what he’s shown this year or go after his replacement is impossible to say. It’s the sort of stuff that makes or breaks the tenures of head coaches and the decision-makers above them very, very quickly. 

But those shot-callers accomplished the goal with the Wentz trade. They moved on from a sputtering era, cleared the books for upcoming years, stockpiled assets and got to evaluate a potential franchise passer for a full season. 

And if Hurts is just a holding-pattern quarterback, his early returns have been enough to at least flirt with playoff contention. He’s a $1.6 million cap hit in 2022 while Wentz is a $28 million cap hit. Boasting three first-rounders and using the extra cash saved to splurge on problem areas in free agency sounds pretty appealing. 

The only way the Eagles could have stumbled into a better best-case scenario is if they had backed into the playoffs, too. And with all NFC East games left on the schedule…never say never? 

That never-say-never vibe was the right way to approach this blockbuster trade from the jump. It was easy to throw out knee-jerk reactions when it went down. But now that we have the benefit of nearly a full season’s worth of hindsight, it’s pretty clear both teams have come out of it the way they had hoped. 

And if things keep trending this way for the Colts and Eagles, it could keep on looking even better with more proof added to the analysis.