Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay didn’t exactly hold back when speaking about the one-year tenure of quarterback Carson Wentz, who the organization traded to the Washington Commanders three weeks prior.
Irsay, unlike head coach Frank Reich who was much more diplomatic in his assessment of Wentz this week, called the signal-caller a “mistake” while speaking to reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.
“I think the worst thing you can do is have a mistake and try to keep living with it going forward,” Irsay told reporters, per the Indianapolis Star. “For us, it was something we had to move away from as a franchise. It was very obvious.”
Irsay added: “For us, the fit just wasn’t right. I don’t know why. A lot of times you don’t know why, but you know it isn’t, and it was important for us to move in a different direction.”
Irsay went on to say while having conversations with veterans on the Colts, he heard “concerning” things pertaining to the veteran’s leadership.
The ending of the campaign for Indianapolis obviously did not help Wentz’ case. The Colts needed to win one of their final two games against the Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars. They lost both games and missed out on the playoffs because of it. Irsay clearly felt some type of way about that.
“No disrespect to Jacksonville, but I mean, they’re the worst team in the league,” Irsay said. “You play well and hard for the first quarter or so, and they’re looking to go to their locker room and clean it out. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. You say, ‘My God, there’s something wrong here.’ It needs to be corrected. I think that we feel like we did.”
To their credit, the Colts did recoup three draft picks from Washington, two which could become second-rounders, for Wentz and their own second-round pick. Indianapolis then went on to use a third-round pick to land veteran quarterback Matt Ryan from the Atlanta Falcons, what is viewed as a clear upgrade at the position.
