What if the Colts never traded for Wentz and rolled with Eason

I’m not a big “What If’s” kind of guy, but this scenario has intrigued me for the last couple of weeks. What if the Colts never traded for Wentz? That means they keep their draft picks and keep the 20something million in cap space, but they’d be going with a complete unknown in Eason as their starter. Let’s break down this scenario.

Going with Eason means you get to keep 21.35M in cap space for 2021. That’s 21.35M that the Colts could use on free agents. The Broncos signed Kyle Fuller, one of the better cornerbacks in the league to a one year deal worth 9.5M. Let’s say the Colts used 10M of their newfound cap space on Fuller, that would leave them with 11.35M to use on a stud receiver and a veteran backup quarterback.

If the Colts decided to go with veteran Colt McCoy as their backup, signing him for 1.5M (300k more than what he signed for), that would leave the team with around 10M (9.85M to be exact) to use on a receiver to make Eason’s life easier. The Jaguars signed Marvin Jones to a 2 year contract worth 12.5M. If the Colts were to give him 14M over two years, that would allow them to get another quality free agent for 3M while addressing their receiver.

Markus Golden, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated pass rushers in the league. Golden finished 5th among edge rushers/defenders in pressure rate last season, according to SIS, and he was second behind only Joey Bosa in pressure rate after he was traded back to the Cardinals. He re-signed for 2.5M, so if the Colts used the remaining money (3M) on bringing Golden to the team, that would be a very good addition and at a great price.

So here’s the recap:

• Lose Carson Wentz
• Regain 2021 3rd round pick and 2022 2nd (or 1st) round pick
• Sign Kyle Fuller
• Sign Colt McCoy as backup QB
• Sign Marvin Jones
• Sign Markus Golden

So the question you have to ask yourself is are the Colts better with a healthy Wentz, but with the current team or with Jacob Eason as the starter, with Kyle Fuller, Marvin Jones, Markus Golden and Colt McCoy on the team too. There isn’t necessarily a wrong answer since one part of this scenario will never be known and Wentz has taken a competitive snap for the Colts yet.

You could definitely argue that a cornerback group of Xavier Rhodes, Kyle Fuller and Kenny Moore (with Carrie, Tell and Ya-Sin as backups) would be one of the best units in the league and with Blackmon over the top, they would have one of the best secondaries in football.

The addition of Marvin Jones would give the Colts a deep group with a lot of quality players, with a starting 3 of Hilton, Jones and Pittman. All three are capable of 1000-yard seasons in the right environment. With Campbell as the #4, Pascal as the #5 and Strachan as the #6, the unit would have tremendous depth.

The addition of Golden would give the Colts a very deep unit at edge rusher. With a rotation of Paye, Golden, Turay, Muhammed and Lewis, no one player would be overly relied upon.

Colt McCoy gives the Colts a backup who would be able to play a few games in relief if needed and be more than adequate.

Of course this is a hypothetical and the Colts have Wentz now whether you like it or not, but it’s always fun to consider what could have been.