Carson Wentz's time as quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts may soon be coming to an end. According to an ESPN report, the franchise will probably trade or release the sixth-year starter prior to March 18 -- the day when his $22 million base salary for the 2022 campaign becomes fully guaranteed.
Indianapolis also wouldn't be completely off the hook by releasing Wentz before the date. They'd still have to pay him $15 million in base salary, and only then would they avoid the remaining $13.2 million of his $28.2 million total cap hit for 2022. A trade involving Wentz would be the ideal scenario, but right now, the Colts are stuck with an albatross contract that ultimately cost a first-round draft pick. In any case, it's a headache-inducing divorce.
"This is tough for me. I'm a huge Carson Wentz fan. I've supported him over the years, and I thought this was going to be an absolute perfect fit for him," former NFL quarterback and current analyst Steve Beuerlein told the Reiter Than You show on Tuesday. "I was so disappointed with the way it all turned out, how inconsistent he was this year, how poorly he played. The Colts are still feeling the effects of the Andrew Luck retirement.
"I don't know if that team is going to have the confidence in [Wentz], moving forward. And that's something Frank Reich's got to make a tough evaluation on. I know Frank Reich really believes Carson Wentz was the guy, and he had to be extremely disappointed. And he's putting himself on the line if he goes to bat for Wentz. That's where it really gets difficult, making those kinds of tough decisions."
With a trip to the playoffs on the line during Week 18, Wentz and Indianapolis choked against the Jacksonville Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field, 26-11, and were eliminated from the AFC wild-card race. The Colts needed to win just one of their final two regular season games to clinch a playoff berth, and somehow, they catastrophically failed to do so. A record of 9-8 was good for second in the AFC South standings.
Wentz's overall performance against Jacksonville's vulnerable defense was humiliating. He completed 17 of 29 passes for 185 yards with one touchdown and one pick, and also finished with a career-low 4.4 QBR, reaffirming that his MVP-caliber run with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017 was simply an anomaly. In a career-high 17 games, Wentz threw for 3,563 yards with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 27-7.
The entire NFL conversation between Beuerlein and Reiter can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Reiter Than You show on Twitter @sportsreiter and @CBSSportsRadio, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.