Indianapolis Colts owner and CEO echoed the same thoughts that fans have had over the last month or so after the team traded for quarterback Carson Wentz.
That notion is regardless of what the team does in the draft, their success in 2021 is largely dependent on which type of player Wentz is for the Colts in his first season.
“Let’s be honest about the situation, how well is Carson Wentz going to do, I think that is really going to dictate just how far we go. That’s just reality,” Irsay said on 1070 The Fan this week. “Now, he needs support. He needs people around him. We saw the Super Bowl and (Patrick) Mahomes with no (offensive) tackles. He looked pedestrian. That’ll happen because you need support. But, really, if Frank Reich can get Carson Wentz’s play to an extremely high level and we feel that he can, and Carson, unquestionably, has every single tool mentally, physically, emotionally to do that, then you’ve got something special.”
Irsay isn’t saying anything we don’t already know. The quarterback position is incredibly important for every team and Colts fans have seen first-hand what happens when they can’t get even league-average play from the position.
How quickly Wentz can get assimilated into the playbook and the mentality that Reich and Ballard have instilled in the locker room will be interesting to watch. The Colts also have some issues to work out when it comes to Wentz’s mechanics.
Even so, Irsay is hopeful that the collective minds in Indy can get Wentz back to where he was as an above-average quarterback. But he understands that only time will tell with this kind of situation.
“There’s no doubt about it. That’s what I know Colts fans will be looking to see, just how good can Carson Wentz get? That’s really the intriguing question that everyone has and only time will tell,” Irsay said.
It will be tough for Wentz to live up to the 2020 season that Philip Rivers gave the Colts but if Reich can get his mind right and they can fix his lower-half mechanics, there is at least upside for the 28-year-old to deliver.
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