ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently looked back at 23 somewhat recent NFL trades, and with the help of hindsight, determined who the winner and loser was from each of those deals.
As it pertains to the Indianapolis Colts, Barnwell looked back at the 2022 offseason, when quarterback Carson Wentz was traded to the Washington Commanders.
In his one season with the Colts, Wentz completed 62% of his passes for 3,563 yards with 27 touchdowns to seven interceptions. However, the Colts would lose their final two games that season and miss the playoffs with a 9-8 record.
The following offseason, the Colts traded Wentz to Washington for 2022 second and third round picks, along with a conditional 2023 third round pick.
As Barnwell notes, those draft picks that the Colts received from Washington ended up becoming Alec Pierce, Jelani Woods, Bernhard Raimann, Drew Ogletree, and Josh Downs–not bad at all.
In addition to the draft picks that the Commanders sent to the Colts, they also took on the guarantees in Wentz’s deal.
“This was a bizarre one,” Barnwell wrote of the trade. “A Commanders team that first tried to trade three first-round picks to the Seahawks for Wilson actively ignored the tea leaves and decided that it was desperate enough to take the plunge, paying the entirety of Wentz’s $28.2 million salary in the process.”
With Washington, Wentz appeared in eight games. In his seven starts, the Commanders had a 2-5 record. Wentz completed 62% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
So what was Barnwell’s verdict? This was a “significant” win for the Colts.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Looking back, who won Colts-Commanders Carson Wentz trade?