According to ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, the Indianapolis Colts are the sole obvious suitor for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz—as the Eagles are quickly losing leverage regarding trading their former franchise passer in ongoing negotiations:
“Two years ago, the Eagles floated the notion that they would tag and trade Nick Foles,” Florio writes. “When they realized that no one would trade for a franchise-tagged Nick Foles. The Eagles didn’t tag him. In this case, common sense suggests that the Eagles eventually will take what they can get for Wentz.”
“For now, the Eagles have one obvious suitor. Unless someone joins the Colts at the table, the Eagles will trade Wentz pursuant only to the terms that the Colts will offer.”
While the asking price by Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has reportedly been absurd—with rumor having it as at least two first round picks in a similar Matthew Stafford like Los Angeles’ Rams trade haul, so far, no one’s biting.
Being the only serious suitor (along with potentially the Chicago Bears?), the Colts very well could ‘corner the market’ here. Colts general manager Chris Ballard is notoriously prudent regarding parting away with draft picks (opting to hoard them instead) and has already commented that he won’t go into ‘desperation mode’ for a starting quarterback this offseason:
“There’s a fine line between being aggressive and desperate. We are not going to operate in a desperate world,” said Colts general manager Chris Ballard on 107.5 The Fan’s ‘The Dan Dakich Show’ this past Friday. “That’s what the world does. That’s what Twitter does. That’s what people do. They operate in a desperation world. No, we’re not going to operate in that world.”
“We’ll be aggressive when we need to be aggressive.”
As noted, that doesn’t mean that Wentz won’t eventually become a Colt, but it will be much more on Indianapolis’ own terms than the reported ridiculous asking price currently being floated around in the league rumor mill.
At this point, the Eagles will either have to awkwardly keep Wentz around with big money owed to him—including a $10M roster bonus due on the 3rd day of the new league year, when neither side wants to continue the rocky relationship any longer—or Philly just might have to give into the Colts’ more frugal trade offer to finally move on.
It’s a competitive game of tug-of-war, but the Colts currently have all of the leverage.
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