This offseason has been a whirlwind for former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Carson Wentz, who was traded to the Washington Commanders where he’ll be their starter in 2022.
The writing was on the wall for Wentz in Indianapolis following an embarrassing Week 18 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars which kept them out of the playoffs. Now he will be asked to bring the Commanders back to prominence.
The Commanders are clearly an organization in flux at the moment with a second investigation into owner Dan Snyder from claims of workplace misconduct and sexual harassment. Former Commanders quarterback Alex Smith knows a thing or two about the instability at the top of that organization.
Smith was with the team from 2018 to 2020 and was a big part of the team making the playoffs in 2020 when he heroically came back from his brutal leg injury, winning Comeback Player of the Year in 2020.
Smith went on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday where he offered a bit of advice to Wentz this upcoming season.
“I think you gotta try and eliminate the noise there,” said Smith. “There’s a lot of noise, a lot of distraction in the entire organization, everything surrounding it. It’s been flawed the last 20 years, there is a lot of distraction and it makes it difficult to focus in on the football.
“This is where Carson is at in this point of his career. He is getting one more chance to kind of be the guy on a team that has been desperate to get a franchise quarterback. He has gotta be locked in and make the most of this opportunity.”
Smith went on to say that the turmoil in the organization certainly had an effect on his play in Washington. That is very telling as to how bad things have really gotten.
Most consider Smith to be a locker room leader from his time on the Kansas City Chiefs, but even he couldn’t escape the drama in Washington.
Wentz will now seemingly have a real task in making the Commanders a winning team in 2022, in what also might be his last chance in the NFL as a starting quarterback. He will have to overcome even more drama within the organization with new allegations surrounding “financial improprieties under Snyder’s ownership.”