Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - NFL insider Adam Caplan on how Carson Wentz became the Colts' quarterback

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

On today's episode, Evan is joined by longtime NFL insider Adam Caplan to go over the Carson Wentz trade. What were the key moments that led to Wentz wanting out of Philadelphia? How did Wentz end up as the Indianapolis Colts' franchise quarterback? So many insider details you won't find anywhere on how the Wentz saga unfolded.From his fractured relationship with Doug Pederson, to the surprise early pick of backup Jalen Hurts, many cracks started to form between the Eagles and their quarterback within a year. Caplan outlines other details that led to Wentz wanting out as well.Frank Reich played a huge role in the Colts being players for Wentz once he became available. Will Reich be able to recapture the magic Wentz once had? Caplan is a big believer in that happening.This is a must-listen, Colts fans. Caplan dishes out some nuggets exclusively to the Locked On Colts listenership on how Wentz turned into Indy's new QB1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello everybody, welcome back to your latest episode of Locked On Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Today's Oz Roast, Evan Sutter, joined by a very, very special guest today on tonight's episode. Adam Kaplan, the Eagles insider for Inside the Bird, does a lot of great work as well covering the whole NFL for SiriusXM, 97.5 The Fanatic.

You can hear him in a lot of places. Adam Kaplan is one of the best NFL insiders in the game. Adam, how are you doing today? Good to talk to you, my friend. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I really, really appreciate having you on. I've been a big fan of your work for a while, and you were all over this Carson Wentz stuff from the very beginning. Just first things first, Adam, what happened there and filled up between Wentz and you? Well, we don't have two hours, so let me boil it down about 30 seconds to 45 seconds.

Wentz won it out. It was way worse than some of the reporters who guessed that firing Doug Peterson should placate him it did and it had it was part of it but um Wentz's issues were not just with the head coach they were with the organization he won it out he won it out for months um just got worse unfortunately, it wasn't a specific person. It was just that series of events that happened. Um, teammates taking shots at them, um, over the years, you know, uh, anonymous sources. Then there was the NFL.com report from my friend, Michael Silver, um,

where, you know, a source said that, uh, you know, challenging Carson's work ethic, which, I mean, during the season, this is coming out, I mean, it's just awful. The timing couldn't be any worse. But that's a good story for Mike. I don't blame him. I'm sure it's true in terms of I'm sure he got information that's credible. I just, these are the kind of things you don't want to have happen. And then there was just a very bizarre relationship between Peterson

and Doug Peterson, the former Eagles head coach, and Wentz, just completely deteriorated. During the season, we had reported a month ago on my show with Jeff Mosher. Jeff and I have hosted a show called Inside the Birds for three years. It's an insider show. Basically, we put scoops out. We give you behind the scenes of the Eagles. And we'd said that they didn't have a relationship anymore.

They barely spoke for over two months, the final two months of the season. And you just can't have it, as you know. You just can't. Bottom line, Evan, you know, in any business that you have, when your best player or supposedly one of your best people doesn't get along with a boss that don't speak, that can't happen. And that should never have happened. And shame on both guys, quite frankly.

Carson had his issues, as I just outlined. And, I mean, if you would have told me this a year ago, I would have said you're on drugs. There's no way. This is not happening. You're telling me the head coach was fired and the quarterback was traded? No, this didn't happen. But it did.

What's crazy about this whole thing, Adam, like you just mentioned, in 2019, the Eagles finished regular season 4-0. Wentz looks like a star quarterback. They go into Green Bay and beat Aaron Rodgers. They unfortunately get hurt in the wild card games, Dave Anclani with that concussion. But where was the first cracks that you know about with this relationship? Because it was so sudden.

To go from where they were to where they are now, it's incredible. Yeah, the things that I had heard over the past year with Wentz is, in 19 there was some of it, he would check in and out of plays a bit more than they probably wanted. It got way worse this past season. Carson's issues from talking to other teams when they grade the coaching tape when they go up against the Eagles is that they seem to agree on this. The big criticism I got is, would he freelance a lot?

Not only were mechanics off, he would freelance a lot. Mechanics were bad. He just looked like a different player. 19 is the way I understand it as the regression started, and it got way worse. This season, obviously, he had to be benched, and he deserved to be benched. He played poorly, and quite frankly,

he should have been benched before he was. 18, considering he was playing with a back fracture, did a good job. He increased his completion percentage by about 9%, which is almost unheard of. Did a good job considering. The Eagles have not had the best passing targets and receiver the past three years but there was no there was no sense that he was in a regression until 19 you started to see him slip very inconsistent as you said he

finished the season really well with a bunch of street free agents to finish the 19th season and this season they went very young alshon jeffrey was coming back from his list, Frank, injury, so he missed significantly time. Deshaun Jackson missed most of the season, so it was a bunch of young players, but that does an excuse on the mechanics issue. Yeah, the Eagles offensive line was banged up once again. Definitely had their injury issues. We should mention that, but to sum it up, he was lost.

What I said on Inside the Birds was his talent is not lost. He was lost, but his talent sure is not lost. What I said on Inside the Birds was his talent is not lost. He was lost, but his talent sure was not lost. The Jalen Hurts pick in the 2020 draft in the second round, I was watching your last episode, Jeff, and from what you heard, he was a third, fourth-round projection for most NFL teams. He really wasn't a guy that was considered to be a starter or maybe someone that down the road could be that guy.

More of a high-end backup, but the Eagles, from what we saw, obviously Nick Foles making an unsuitable run. They value their backup quarterbacks a lot, maybe a lot more than every other team in the NFL. They'll get Jalen Hurts in the second round. I mean, that had to have rubbed Wentz the wrong way. And from what we've heard, it just seems like that caused a little schism as well. Put that in the list.

Like if we had our top ten issues Carson Wentz had with the Eagles, that's in my top five. I'm glad you mentioned that one. But you know what, though? It shouldn't matter. If you believe strongly in yourself, how about look at Aaron Rodgers. Now, he didn't hide that he was not happy about them drafting Jordan Love. So what does he do?

He wins the MVP. See, you just shouldn't worry about that stuff. But I know that he saw the litany of issues that he had, and this was just on top of it. But drafting a kid in the second round, by the way, he was a late second-round pick, that shouldn't bother him. But I'm not him, and it definitely bothered him from people I spoke with. The Philadelphia market can be ruthless, Adam, as you know.

I mean, it seems like to me as well, and we've heard a couple things here and there, that Carson and his fit with the market there are just very unrelenting. Sometimes when Wentz didn't have a good game, it maybe took him a little more personal than it should for some players. As far as the quarterback position goes, do you feel like maybe him escaping the Philadelphia market could help out a little bit?

Just because I know maybe we've seen before he can maybe take some criticism a little bit higher than more. He actually got along with the media pretty well. He didn't really cause waves. Obviously, his issues was behind the scenes. But the issue was really simple in terms of what bothered him. You know, it's just a lot of stuff. You sum it up, you can certainly understand.

It's not hard to understand why he wanted out the Eagles I think were kind of shocked at how badly he wanted out as I understood it or understand it he I don't think they felt that it would get to this point and they felt I guess to their credit they felt that they they had to do right by the player because he no longer wanted to be there I don't know if I would have done that if I was the owner of the general manager, but taking a hit of $33.8 million dead money with a cap that's going to be between probably $180 to $183-ish this season. It's going down.

Obviously, it could be $15 million to $18 million. This is not good. This is not good, but it is what it is. Bet online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football might be over, but NBA, college basketball, and the NHL are in full swing. Bet online even covers awards, TV shows, and reality TV. Real-time data, odds, and props, almost anything you can imagine. Bet online is your card for all the news, scores, and odds,

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Than the Game. This weekend, Candace Cooper of Lockdown Tar Heels and Ross Jackson of Lockdown Saints discuss holding space in the balance, discussing blackness in sports. Subscribe to the lockdown presents podcast field on the radio.com app, wherever you get your podcast. From what you know, the trade negotiations that I'm like,

I mentioned top of the show. You're on top of this from day one. When do you think it started? When the Eagles started taking calls and accepting those calls and Carson Wentz, what do you know about the Colts in this from, it seemed like from day one, any other teams that really were significantly in it?

We heard Chicago, but they really never made an offer from what you said. Yeah, so I reported last week that Chicago backed out. They backed out the previous week to the Colts and Eagles agreeing to the trade. So it was really just the Colts. It was somewhere after the coaching search, I think, in terms of calls and how he rose from the GM and other teams telling me. I can't speak for how, but I just know other teams telling me that they were getting calls maybe three weeks ago, something like that.

I didn't write down the days, but it's somewhere uh three weeks ago something like that um i didn't care you know i didn't write down the days but it's somewhere around three weeks uh i would say between two and three weeks probably more than three weeks because the colts and eagles talked i don't know how many times to get this deal done but um look the fact of matter is with this situation if you're an eagles fan this is you never saw this coming it's one of the most is with this situation, if you're an Eagles fan, you never saw this coming. It's one of the most unique stories I've covered in 21 years I've covered this business. I've covered a lot of issues, Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels. I remember how ugly that was.

But that was just a head coach and a player. But I've not seen an implosion like this where teams want to get destroyed by a cap hit because the player wants out and they they actually i don't want to say they were okay with it they said you know what you don't want to be here we're going to move them crazy when cursing got benched in green bay this year and jaylen hurts took over he had a couple good drives and from the rest of the season we saw her start the rest of the season from that point on was at the end of the once era at that point yeah because what the e Eagles were in an evaluation mode.

It's a term that personnel people use. It's like they're done. They're a bad football team. They were 4-11-1. At that point, they knew they weren't going to the playoffs, so why not evaluate the player and take a look at Hurts? He definitely was uneven in his time, but I'll tell you what. First start against New Orleans, did a good job.

Against a very good defense. that was in Philly, and the Cardinal game was terrific. I thought he did really well. The Washington game, look, another thing. He didn't play well. Yeah, I get it. He didn't play well in the other game either. So two out of the four games he played well,

but if you look at what they were putting out there on their offensive line particularly, it was tough for him. But right now he's the only quarterback on the roster, amazingly as it is, but they'll add two more. That won't be a problem for them. Nick Sirianni, of course, the former Colts coordinator, hired to be the Eagles head coach, was supposed to really help maybe rehab Carson Wentz. Do you know if Sirianni and Wentz ever spoke after he was hired?

He actually said, I think through text, Nick said when he got the job that he did text him, if I remember correctly, that they at least texted. Nick, I met at Colts training camp twice, in 18 and 19. Super high energy guy. I've talked to a lot of coaches that work with him. There was no doubt he would be a head coach down the line. There's a couple guys told me they didn't think would be this soon. But you know what? When Andy Reid became the Eagles head coach in 99, I learned my lesson. Just because people think it's a little early doesn't mean it's not the right decision.

The Eagles were blown away by Sirianni during that interview. Now I would tell you, they never got to talk to Brandon Staley, Arthur Smith, the Eagles really, really liked, but the Falcons got made in the offer before the Eagles could really move forward with that. So that evaporated. But when they got Sirianni on board, the way I understood it, they kind of knew it. That's the thing, Evan, when you talk to people around the league

when they do these interviews. Sometimes you sit with someone and you go, that's our guy. And they knew it when they came out of their meeting with him. That was the guy. Frank Reich and Carson Wentz, of course, have had their relationships before even Wentz was drafted in 2016. From the stories I've read, Reich was very high on Wentz from day one in this guy in process in North Dakota State.

Can you speak a little more to the relationship? I know a lot of Colts fans are really banking on Frank was very high on Wentz from day one in this guy in process, North Dakota state. Can you speak a little more to the relationship? I know a lot of Colts fans are really banking on Frank Reich to rehab Carson Wentz. Was this really Reich's guy from the very beginning? Yeah, it was, but I mean, it's not like they weren't looking at other quarterbacks.

They were, but just, and I give Chris Ballard a lot of credit. Frank won to Phillip Rivers, who we coached when he was the OC with, with the chargers that, you know, you have toed when he was the OC with the Chargers. That, you know, you have to say it worked out. They got to the playoffs. So I thought that, so you could say Frank's one for one there. Frank wanted Carson Wentz,

but it's Ballard's decision. He has personnel control. He could say, I don't want to do it, and it wouldn't happen. But Chris was on board, and they got the deal done. They got the trade done. And I think when you look at Frank, they have a very close personal relationship, which they formed. He was – the way it worked in Philly, John DiFilippo was the one who put together the mechanics for Wentz. He was the one who coached him day to day. The quarterback room, he ran it.

And Frank and Reich and Peterson would be in those quarterback day to day. The quarterback room, he ran it. And Frank and Reich and Peterson would be in those quarterback meetings and they let DiFilippo run it. But Frank was the big brother to Carson, big time mentors, I was told. And they just bonded like that. I'll tell you what, this is a very unique relationship that they had. You don't usually see it that quickly that soon, but Frank was involved in the recruitment of Wentz when they went out west in 2016. That was the famous trip. There were, I think, six or seven people on that trip,

and the Eagles knew then it was going to be Wentz over Goff. It wasn't even close. But now before that trip, it was close. But that trip, when they got in front of those guys, they worked them out. got to know each each quarterback separately uh they knew it was once again the talent level evan is not left they got to get they got to click he maybe gets a clean uh break here with with the colts and gets his mind right and they could rebuild him this is not a fix by the way this is a rebuild with carson wentz we

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Go to rockauto.com right now and see what parts of your car or truck. Write Locked On in their How's Your Boss box, send them what we sent you over there. Again, write Locked On, L-O-C-K-A-D-O-N, in the How's Your Boss box, send them what Locked On Colts sent you over there. They have main selection, reliably low prices, and all the parts a car will ever need. Go to rockauto.com right now. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson every Monday through Friday.

Brian and Matt give you the national perspective on all around the NFL, covering all the latest news and insight on every game, team, and move around the NFL. Get your picks, previews, and much more every weekday with the Peacock and Williamson podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Last few I have here for you, Adam. Really appreciate the time. With Carson Wentz, the talent you just spoke to, he has the arm talent. reading your podcast last few i have here for you adam really appreciate the time with carson

wentz the talent you just spoke to he has the the arm talent he has the physical acumen as well to really be like you saw in 2017 a near mvp type of quarterback in the nfl top five incredible by the way he was incredible yeah he really is i mean he has all the ingredients to be a franchise quarterback from what you've seen over the years adam covering philadelphia covering the nfl at large where does wentz rank amongst the quarterbacks you've seen in person as far as pure talent goes oh boy that's a great question um the the in terms of talent arm talent and just overall talent in my I'll just say as a reporter because I'm not going to include Joe Montana um you know I wasn't covering the league when he was playing. But just from pure arm talent and overall gifted, just gifted.

Josh Allen, who was incredible this year. I didn't see – I never saw this coming from Josh Allen. Allen is the – Allen's actually got a stronger arm, believe it or not. I would say Josh Allen's right up there with Wentz. In fact, obviously Josh Allen's a better football player right now. He is – the way it was explained to me in 17, you couldn't name five better quarterbacks in the National Football League. That's from everyone I talked to about Wentz that season. Joe Banner, the former Eagles president and Browns president, when Joe and I worked at ESPN

together, he thought potentially Wentz could be a Hall of Fame player. How about that? That's how talented he is now, But he obviously lost his way this season. So you hope that they can rebuild him with Marcus Brady and Scott Milinovich and with Frank. They've got a big job on their hands, though. Carson must buy in from day one. If he buys in and does what he's told, he could be a top-ten quarterback rather easily if he does.

Cress Taylor, Adam, came on the Colts coaching staff. He's a senior offensive analyst. From a lot of Colts fans connecting the dots with Press Taylor and Carson Wentz, of course, he was the QB coach last year. From what I've read and from what you've reported too, he might have been a little too lax on Wentz at some point. Yep. Can you tell us some Colts and just about the relationship between Press Taylor

and Carson Wentz and what the Colts are getting with Press Taylor? They had another close working relationship because taylor took over as the quarterbacks in 18 so it was his quarterback coach the last three years and they were just very close this is not a secret to anybody uh and yeah i mean press shouldn't have anything to do with the quarterback position there because that's not his job there that's covered by the three guys that i just mentioned um so yeah i mean he's there and it's crazy how this happens mike grow was his offensive coordinator in 1819 they didn't have the greatest relationship um it's been detailed by a lot of reporters mike's a good man he's by the way he's an unbelievable receivers coach probably one of the best of the national football league um so that's a pretty good get by Frank.

And then Kevin Petullo comes here with, who was a former receivers coach, comes here with Sirianni. So, look, the Press-Taylor thing's not a big deal. It's very simple. If Wentz buys in and does not try to freelance, just takes to the coaching, I'm telling you he's going to be a top-ten quarterback. That's how gifted he is. This is one of the most unique unravelings I've ever seen as a quarterback.

You and I could put a list together of guys who we thought were going to be special, and then they completely regressed, and that was it. These things just don't happen. Now, we've just detailed everything that I know, just about everything I know. But, again, he changes teams. He's with a guy that he really respects and cares about, Frank Reich. If it doesn't happen with Frank Reich, I just don't see him being a good quarterback again. Last one here for you, Adam. Really appreciate the time. Looking at this trade from a hole here, the third round pick number 84 overall in this year's draft, the conditional

2022 second pick. More the like, it turns out first round pick if all goes well this year for Carson Wentz and Indy. Do you feel like this is a win-win trade for both sides? Or like you mentioned, if Wentz does explode in Indy with the good infrastructure around him, it could be something that the Eagles look back on in five, six years, like, where are we doing? Well, here's the thing. It's such a catch-22 for Eagle fans because it's like they seem to be split on Wentz, whether they're mad at him or they don't blame him.

Because I know a lot of fans want to blame the front office. But here's the thing. If he does well, they're going to get a first-round pick. So it's just like what you can't win for losing or vice versa. But Carson's a pretty good guy. I just think that he needs to get out of his own head and just do what he's asked. He's got a chance to be a star again.

Now, Colt fans fans this is going to be fascinating because you'll be you will be glad to give up a future first round pick if he does well trust me on this if they if they rescue wins and they get him rebuilt it becomes special again oh my god i would give up two first round picks for this guy so it on the surface it's a very fair trade because don't forget carsonz was benched last season. So I give Chris Ballard credit. He did a good job of negotiation. Harry Roseman, their Eagles GM, did the best that he could. They know each other pretty well, as I understand it. And I can't wait to watch this.

I'm hoping to get to Colts camp again. With the shutdown, we don't get a chance to do it, but I'm hoping to get there and to see what happens in person here. Hopefully I can see you there, Adam. Really great stuff from you here on today's podcast. Really appreciate the time and been a fan for a very long time. You guys can go follow him on Twitter if you're not already, at KaplanNFL.

Go listen to his work as well at SiriusXM. Inside the Birds with Jeff Mosher. They do great stuff over there as well. Adam, really appreciate the time tonight. Thank you.