Frank Reich Focused on Finding Carson Wentz’s MVP Form

Carson Wentz and Frank Reich are reunited with the Indianapolis Colts, and Reich is focused on finding the formula that made Wentz so successful during the 2017 season with the Philadelphia Eagles.

At the time, Wentz looked like he was ready to be a perennial MVP candidate with Reich as his offensive coordinator, but things went downhill for the North Dakota State product over the past few seasons. 

“I mean, anybody who’s been around Carson knows,” Reich said of Wentz’s work ethic. “There are many things that you cannot question, and certainly work ethic is one of them. Like a lot of our players, I’m not saying he works harder than them, but he works really, really hard. Very detailed in his work, very committed and very determined. … Some of it’s not uncommon. But it’s just the way he’s going about it, I think that is very good.”

Wentz threw just 16 touchdowns and 15 interceptions last season before he was benched for Jalen Hurts. His struggles led to the Eagles trading him, but WynnBET thinks he will be a nice addition to the Colts as they have the best odds to win the AFC South at -110. 

Despite the Tennessee Titans trading for Julio Jones, the Colts are expected to lead the division and part of that is because of the connection Wentz has with Reich. 

“It’s been really healthy discussion, getting them to see how I see it, and me trying to see how they see the game, and building it together,” Wentz said. “I have a ton of respect for Frank not only as a man, but also as a coach, and just seeing what he’s done, with a different quarterback every year, and how he’s catered to their playing styles, what they do well, to put them in the best position to have success. And I saw him do that for me in Philly as well.

“I have the utmost confidence he’s gonna do that again.”

Wentz said that he’s gone back to see what made him successful in 2017, and while there wasn’t a big change, he realized he needs to become more detail oriented again. The Colts, who have a decent amount of weapons in Jack Doyle,. T.Y. Hilton, Johnathan Taylor, and Michael Pittman, should give Wentz a chance to prove that he can get back to the player Reich coached in 2017.

“When you hit the reset button, it’s an opportunity to rebuild from the ground up,” Reich said. “So one of the ways we emphasize just come in and be the quarterback is just coach the heck out of the basics, starting with your stance. For a quarterback in shotgun, the detail of that—not just talking about the stance, but talking about the fine details of the stance and what we’re trying to do with all of our footwork in all of our drops in our pass game, whether it’s play-action or drop-back or what we’re trying to do, and how we’re trying to time things up with a rhythm and timing standpoint, as far as the footwork and the drops.

“And everything fundamentally as far as throwing the football. Setting up with his feet, using his feet, using all the things we talked about without going into all the detail. That’s all about playing quarterback. And then secondly, just really diving into knowing the offense. Obviously, he’s familiar with a lot of the concepts. But the verbiage is a lot different than he’s used to. Because everybody thinks, ‘Well I came here from Philly, it’ll be the same,’ when really a lot of the verbiage was different.”

If anyone can get Wentz back on track, it seems to be Reich. WynnBET currently has Wentz’s MVP odds set at +1800, which is a huge leap forward as he and Hurts had actually both opened with +5000 odds to win the award. 

Vegas is buying into the Wentz-Reich connection, but the quarterback will need to prove things on the field in Indianapolis if he wants to make it back to the playoffs in 2021.