This weekend, the rest of the country will get to see what those in Indianapolis have been watching with hope over the last three weeks. And if you haven’t been paying attention to how Carson Wentz has come around? That’s understandable.
Wentz got hurt three days into his first camp with the Colts and needed foot surgery as a result. Then, after working his way back onto the practice field, he landed on the COVID-19 list, which knocked him out for almost another full week of practice. And after struggling in Week 1, he’d opened himself up to a beating against a fierce Rams rush in Week 2, sprained both his ankles and, well, Wentz might as well have been wearing wings on his helmet at that point.
Same old problems. Same old Wentz. Same as Philly. So one of the biggest stories of this NFL offseason—the Eagles-Colts trade that relocated Wentz—had its in-season narrative.
If we only knew then that’s just where Wentz was starting the rewrite in his new home.
And if what’s come the last few weeks was delayed, that’s explainable, too. Sure, it sucked for Wentz going through the injuries. But what hurt as bad was all the time he missed on task, something that Indy was acutely aware of and accounting for. So where frustration would’ve been natural, Wentz found a way to stay patient and trust that, with better health, progress would come.
“Practice time is always huge—I’d say it’s even bigger when you’re coming into a new team, new offense, new faces,” Wentz says as he’s driving home Wednesday night. “Thankfully for me, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve played five years already, seen a lot of ball, seen a lot of defenses, and it’s not a giant transition in the playbook. There’s a lot of carryover in the scheme. There’s a lot new, but there’s a lot of carryover, and similar stuff that I’ve done.
“That definitely helps make that transition. But it’s not something that’s advantageous by any means, to miss reps, miss practice.”
In total, Wentz had just 10 practice days between the start of camp and the opener (July 29–31, Aug. 23–25, Sept. 2 and 8–10), and that was after the Colts’ spring was cut short through player negotiations for more time off. He missed two more sessions after the Week 2 injury and was limited for the lone day he practiced ahead of a Week 3 loss in Nashville.
Bottom line, Wentz hasn’t missed a game but did miss a of valuable time. But now, he’s finally starting to get that time back. The results have followed, with the vision that Frank Reich had for Wentz coming to life over a 2–1 stretch the last three weeks.
This week, Reich’s plan and Wentz’s progress will take center stage on against the 49ers’ sixth-ranked defense, giving us all a new chance to check in on Wentz’s steps back to what he once was in Philly.
And more important, what the Colts believe he’s in the process of becoming again.
