The Colts are transitioning to a new starting quarterback for the third time in as many years, but General Manager Chris Ballard doesn’t think it will be a rocky one.
During an appearance on Colin Cowherd’s podcast, Ballard said that the transition has been “pretty seamless” thus far because Carson Wentz played for head coach Frank Reich when Reich was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator. That experience created a level of trust between quarterback and coach that Ballard believes will be a significant factor in the success of their partnership in Indianapolis.
“I don’t think you can ever minimize how important that is,” Ballard said, via Kevin Hickey of USAToday.com. “The quarterback has to feel comfortable with who’s pulling the strings and who’s pulling the trigger. And that made the trade for Carson a lot easier because I knew there was a trust level between the two of them, and trust is everything in this league and trust between the quarterback and the play-caller is everything.”
Wentz’s final season in Philadelphia didn’t feature that kind of relationship with his head coach and it’s clear that Ballard thinks getting that back will be vital to Wentz’s chances of becoming a productive player again in the future.