The Colts QB in 2021 is?...

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Oldcolt

Thirty million cap hit for the next four years is to much of a gamble for me. I am actually thinking that any draft choice would be overpaying. At this price unless Reich/Ballard are absolutely positive that the issue was Pederson I would prefer to stay away

The good news is that if the Colts acquired Wentz, they wouldn’t necessarily be on the hook for all that money. Like many backloaded contracts, the later years of Wentz’s contract (2023-2024) do not appear to be guaranteed and any existing cap impact from those years (i.e. prorated signing bonuses) would remain with Philly who paid the bonuses. Thus, the Colts would not be committed to anything for those years.

The main concern would be 2021 and 2022. As I read the contract info, his 2021 salary ($15.4M) and roster bonus ($10M) are guaranteed but not yet paid. That would be on the Colts. There’s also an unexplained 2021 “option” ($6M) which probably would need to be paid (unless Philly has already paid it), since it's highly unlikely the Colts would trade for him and then cut him before next season. So that’s $31.4M for 2021 (still less, however, than we paid Rivers/Brissett in 2020).

We’d probably be on the hook for most of 2022 as well, since $15M of his 2022 salary becomes guaranteed prior to the next (2021) season – again, we would not be cutting him before then. The rest of the 2022 salary ($7M) become guaranteed before the 2022 season, so we could get out of that if Wentz was absolutely terrible in 2021. He’s also got another $6M “option” in 2022, which may or may not need to be paid depending on its terms. So, by acquiring Wentz now, we’d be on the hook for at least $15M in 2022 if he doesn’t play for us that year, or $28M if he does.

All of this assumes, of course, that the info reported by Spotrac is accurate, and that the Colts do not attempt to renegotiate some of those terms. It is doubtful, however, that any renegotiation would reduce his guarantees, though it might push them to later/different years.