Less than 24 hours after a brutal loss to the division rival Tennessee Titans and having a short turnaround before Thursday night’s game against the New York Jets, the Colts were very busy on Monday. On top of having to answer questions about his curious play-calling and Carson Wentz’s decison-making, head coach Frank Reich also ruled out wide receiver T.Y. Hilton (concussion) for Thursday’s game and Tyquan Lewis, who suffered a season-ending knee injury. Then, the Colts announced some roster moves, most notably that they have released No. 2 quarterback Brett Hundley and elevated Sam Ehlinger to the backup role.
Hundley has since been signed back to the Colts practice squad but it still shines a bright light on Frank Reich’s reasoning for keeping Brett Hundley over Jacob Eason. He cited Hundley’s “experience” as to why they kept him and sent 2020 fourth-round pick Eason packing on October 19. But now just weeks later, Hundley and his experience were also shown the door in favor of Ehlinger, the team’s sixth-round pick in 2021. So it was never really about experience at all when it comes to the backup quarterback role. The Colts wanted to cut ties with Eason after they realized he wasn’t going to be the QB they thought he would when they drafted him and used the “experience” of Hundley as a scapegoat excuse to send him off into the sunset.
Now that Ehlinger is back from his IR stint, the Colts are hoping he is someone who can be developed to fill in for Carson Wentz and potentially replace him if it comes to that. Hundley’s status on the roster was always a curious one but it was the combination of Eason’s failed development as a competent backup and a wild swing and miss by the front office in drafting him that pushed Hundley one injury away from being QB 1 on the Colts.
Have the Colts found their answer at the backup QB role? It’s too early to tell. But at least we know the charade of needing “experience” is over with. It was never about experience. We all knew that. It was about fit. It was about trying to cover the wart that was the backup QB situation with some cheap make-up until Ehlinger could return. We saw right through it. If the Colts season continues to go off the rails we may see more of Ehlinger in 2021 than we planned to, especially if the postseason is a pipedream and the team attempts to salvage their first-round pick going to Philadelphia. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but this season has been the furthest thing from normal and we’ve only just turned the calendar to November.
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