Quarterback · Minnesota Vikings

Carson Wentz

No. 11 · 11th season

The trade that didn't have to happen

The Indianapolis Colts needed a quarterback. That part was simple. What wasn't simple was how they got there.

Philip Rivers had played a full season for the Colts and, by most accounts, held things together well enough. When he stepped away, the team had a choice. They moved to acquire Carson Wentz instead of finding a way to keep Rivers for one more year.

Wentz came to Indianapolis carrying a complicated recent history — a player who had been among the best at his position once, then wasn't, then was on a new team trying to find that version of himself again. The Colts were betting on the earlier story being the real one.

Whether Rivers would have solved anything is a question nobody can answer cleanly now. But the idea that the Wentz chapter was avoidable is the kind of thing that stays in a franchise's back pocket for a while.

The Colts moved on from Wentz not long after. The question of the road not taken tends to follow a team longer than the player does.

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