Should Patriots have paid price for Carson Wentz?

We’re still about month away from the start of the new league year, and the offseason of unchartered quarterback movement has already done wonders in terms of living up to its potential.

On Thursday, yet another trade was completed when the Philadelphia Eagles agreed to send former starter Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts.

In exchange, Philly received a 2021 third-round draft pick and a conditional second-rounder in 2022, which could morph into a first if certain on-field incentives are reached.

This deal takes yet another quarterback option off the board for the New England Patriots, though they didn’t show any real interest in dealing for Wentz.

With that being said, however, when you consider how little the Colts ended up giving up for the former No. 2 overall pick, should the Pats have any regrets about not pursuing him?

It’s a question worth proposing with terms of the blockbuster being made official, and in hindsight, we like to think that fans would’ve preferred the Patriots at least enter their name in the two-team (Indy and Chicago) sweepstakes.

Should the Patriots have paid the price for Carson Wentz?

It’s admittedly difficult to say for certain if the Patriots should have paid this price for Wentz, as there are underlying ingredients that factored into the Colts’ decision to trade for him. For starters, the deal reunites him with Frank Reich, who was the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia for the first two seasons of his career, including his MVP-caliber campaign in 2017.

Wentz clearly valued his working relationship with Reich, and the Patriots simply don’t have anybody on their coaching staff that shares that sort of history (let alone any) with the 28-year-old gunslinger. Wentz and the Colts is the anti-“Matthew Stafford and Matt Patricia” situation.

Sorry, low blow.

With that in mind, there’s no way to know if Wentz would’ve endorsed a trade to Foxborough, and based on how he essentially rejected a potential move to Chicago, odds are he could’ve done the same with New England.

However, if we were to just assume that Wentz would’ve signed off on being dealt to the Patriots, then they absolutely should’ve pulled the trigger. It’s duly noted that the former Pro Bowler was borderline unplayable for most of this past season, but his upside and intangibles (plus his age) are simply everything you would want in a franchise quarterback.

If you told us that the Patriots wouldn’t have had to give up anything more than the haul Indy forked over, how could you possibly say no to that? Sure, New England doesn’t have the same luxuries that the Colts can currently offer him, but one aggressive offseason could swiftly change that narrative and they’re projected to have over $68 million in cap space to work with.

It definitely stinks not knowing what the Patriots’ plan is at QB, but it would’ve been nice to see them at least make a play for Wentz, especially after it became clear that the Eagles weren’t going to get anything close to their initial asking price of two first-round picks.

We’re still willing to give the front office the benefit of the doubt, but given the lack of serviceable options remaining, they’d be hard-pressed to get a better quarterback at a better bargain than what the Colts just pulled off to land Wentz.

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