The Indianapolis Colts seem to be a team right on the borderline of the playoffs when it comes to projecting the 2021 season. They could be a team that finds their way in or they could be undone by various issues throughout the campaign.
Peter King, in his Football Morning in America column, was once bullish on the 2021 Colts. Given what has transpired over the last month, he finds himself cooling on their postseason prospects due to the vaccination status of two stars on the roster.
Teams I’m cool on: I want to like the COLTS, but their two most important players, Carson Wentz and Darius Leonard, aren’t vaccinated, and Wentz just missed five days because of a close contact with an infected person. It seems incredible that, after missing five days of work with his new team on the heels of missing significant time due to foot surgery, that Wentz won’t take the shot. (A vaxxed player who has been a close contact with an infected person doesn’t sit unless he tests positive. An unvaxxed player sits for five days, no exceptions.) “Trust me, I have weighed a lot of things,” Wentz said. “I know what is at stake. It is just where I am at and where I am at with my family.” Does Wentz really know what is at stake? And is it really worth passing on an overwhelmingly safe injection for whatever reason he won’t take it? But that’s America in 2021.
Both Wentz and Leonard spoke to the media last week about why they haven’t gotten vaccinated. Wentz simply said it was a personal decision and requested others to respect his decision. Leonard said he needed more research to be done on the vaccine before making his decision.
If both Wentz and Leonard are on the field, the Colts will have a chance to win every week. There’s a risk in being unvaccinated because of the required quarantine even as a close contact. At the drop of a dime, either one could be ruled out for a game as a close contact.
The Colts will continue to be a borderline playoff team until we see just how good they are with Wentz. And with so much of the roster unvaccinated, this will be a storyline to monitor throughout the season.
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