Colts: How did Frank Reich not mention Carson Wentz once during press conference?

The Indianapolis Colts are taking a massive gamble entrusting Carson Wentz with running the offense after his confidence vanished amid an awful stretch of performances this past season that lasted until he was benched in Week 12.

With that being said, fans would still be hard-pressed to be displeased with the Colts for pulling the trigger on this trade, as they gave up a relatively cheap haul for a quarterback who’s not only in the middle of his prime, but has tremendous upside from an intangibles standpoint.

Now that the trade is several days old, it’s become evident that Frank Reich was just as responsible for it as the entire front office.

The 59-year-old has rated Wentz extremely highly dating back to college and has always spoken glowingly about him throughout his career.

That praise continued long after he was appointed Colts head coach three years ago in 2018.

Taking all of this into account, we were absolutely gobsmacked to find out Reich completely circumvented mentioning Wentz by name during his Thursday press conference.

Frank Reich didn’t mention Colts QB Carson Wentz once during his press conference

It’s worth noting that league rules forbid Reich from talking about Wentz since the trade can’t be made official until the start of the new league year next month. However, the fact that he didn’t slip up once in nearly 30 minutes in front of the microphone, most of which was spent fielding questions about the Colts’ quarterback situation, is extremely impressive.

Though he danced around certain questions, Reich did manage to offer up some real insight on the impact a coach can have in remedying a quarterback’s confidence. Given that Wentz evidently struggled with this in 2020, Colts fans will definitely appreciate Reich’s answer.

"“The confidence level of players is important at every position, certainly not just quarterback,” Reich told reporters. “I think one of the great misnomers is that sometimes fans think these are the greatest players in the world, (but) everybody loses confidence for a moment. It may be brief, but it always goes back the same way.”“One of the ways to build confidence back is you go back to the basics. You go back to the fundamentals and technique. You go back to the basic schemes and you build it one play at a time. That’s true for any of us. So, that’s the way we’ll handle every position.”"

Based on these comments (and that telling stat graphic), you have to think Wentz couldn’t have landed in a better place to revitalize his career.

Whether it’s a matter of mechanics or decision-making (or both), Reich’s well-documented fondness of Wentz — you better believe it killed him inside not to be able to wax poetic about the former second overall pick during this press conference — proves that he’s ready to undergo this reclamation project.

Sorry, Colts fans. But you’re going to have to wait at least another few weeks for Reich’s official comments on the Wentz trade. As it turns out, there is a consequence for Indy patching up their quarterback situation so early in the offseason. Who knew?

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