What does Carson Wentz injury mean for Sam Ehlinger?
One of the trendy picks this season for a deep postseason run — maybe even a Super Bowl XLI berth? — is the Indianapolis Colts … the team, Texas fans know, chose former UT quarterback Sam Ehlinger in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The Colts have a strong defense, a powerful (when healthy) offensive line and an emerging running game with fast-rising Jonathan Taylor toting the ball. Over the offseason, the team traded for former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz to lead the offense and lift the team into title contention.
Wentz was made available by the Eagles in large part because of questions about his durability. He has the tools — size, intelligence, arm strength, mobility, the proverbial “football IQ — to be everything a team can want in a franchise quarterback. There’s a reason Philadelphia drafted him with the second pick in the 2016 draft. In 2017, he was the odds-on favorite to win the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award before going down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Wentz can play. But can he stay healthy?
The Colts thought so, at least enough to trade a 2021 third-round draft pick and a conditional second-round 2022 draft pick — the conditions of which were based on Wentz’s health, and how many snaps he played, etc.
The chances of that pick getting bumped up to a first took a huge hit last week when Wentz felt pain in his foot, enough that he got it checked out. The injury turned out to be a broken bone, an injury Wentz “unknowingly suffered a broken foot at some point in his career, likely in high school, and when the quarterback planted his foot in practice last Thursday, a piece of the bone came loose,” according to The Indianapolis Star.
Just like that, the Colts’ new offensive leader was shelved “for five to 12 weeks.”
So now what?
With Wentz on the mend [horns3]
