The Indianapolis Colts have agreed to a trade in principle with the Philadelphia Eagles to acquire Carson Wentz, and because that trade can't become official until the start of the new league year, it can't quite be spoken about just yet.
Such was the stage for Frank Reich's Thursday press conference, in which he likely fully anticipated fielding questions about his team's soon-to-be-new quarterback. Instead of talking about Wentz directly, Reich spoke vaguely of the significance of the quarterback to a team's chances.
"It's very important, as we all know. It's a critical position," Reich said. "You always have that healthy tension of, the quarterback position is really important but the quarterback is just one man on the roster.
"We do believe we have the right roster, we have the right culture. Getting good quarterback play is necessary to win a world championship. And obviously here in this organization, the standard has been set, and I feel like we've gotten good quarterback play in recent years, in our three years here, as well. We need to continue to have that kind of play and even continue to improve upon that kind of play for us to win a world championship."
The Colts will, of course, hope for satisfactory quarterback play from Wentz, who also carries a style much different from that of Philip Rivers, Indianapolis' 2020 bridge quarterback who rode off into retirement after leading the Colts to a playoff berth. That will require a bit of an adjustment from Reich and his staff, something Reich readily admitted while still avoiding mentioning the addition of Wentz directly.
"This is a players' game," Reich said, via the Indianapolis Star's Jim Ayello. "It's about putting the players on display. ...To win a Super Bowl, I'm not ashamed to say, players need to outplay the coaching."
Wentz will need to outplay his 2020 version of himself, which took a drastic step back from the once-promising trajectory that had him entrenched as the Eagles' quarterback enough to warrant a lucrative new contract. He carries that deal to Indianapolis, where he'll aim to turn around his career in a new uniform. A few weeks from now, we'll get to learn how he plans to go about achieving it.
