The Colts will clinch a playoff berth with a victory over the Jaguars on Sunday. It would put quarterback Carson Wentz back in the postseason in his first year with Indianapolis.
The No. 2 overall pick of the 2016 draft has started all 16 games for Indianapolis this year, completing 62.6 percent of his passes for 3,378 yards with 26 touchdowns and six interceptions. Last year, he tied Drew Lock for the league lead with 15 picks, despite playing only 12 games.
With running back Jonathan Taylor’s success this season, Wentz hasn’t truly had a signature game. The two times he’s thrown for more than 300 yards in 2021, Indianapolis has lost. He did throw for 272 yards and three touchdowns against the Jets in November, but New York’s defense ranks last in yards and points allowed.
Still, Wentz has taken command of the offense. And one of his teammates told reporters this week that people probably don’t know just how competitive Wentz is.
“No matter what it is, he wants to be the best,” linebacker Darius Leonard said on Thursday. “It’s a small thing that he does. You see it in Hard Knocks when JT [Taylor] runs a little swing route, he tells JT, ‘Run it like this.’ It’s just the small things that he wants to be great at and I just feel like in the offseason, that’s where it started at, him being a leader. Whenever we couldn’t meet together, he’s got the guys on the outside throwing balls and everything, trying to be the best version of themselves.
“It’s just like, when your back’s against the wall and nobody believes in you, you want to be the best guy on the field to shut the critics up and I think that’s what he’s trying to do and I think that he’s doing a good job at it.”
If the Colts are going to make a deep playoff run, they’ll need Wentz to use that competitiveness to be at his best every week.