Jim Irsay never sees the glass as anything but half full.
The Colts owner, who had high hopes for multiple championships with Peyton Manning at quarterback and then with Andrew Luck running the team, continues to be optimistic about the future, even with both Manning and Luck long gone.
“I really believe that you will see a golden era develop as we go into this decade sitting here in 2021,” Irsay said Thursday at the press conference introducing quarterback Carson Wentz. “I believe it with all my heart and soul. There’s good reason to believe it. You talk to people around the league and people that know, they’re going to agree with what I’m saying when they look at Chris Ballard and Frank Reich and the expectations going into this decade that we have for both of them leading the team. . . .
“But I really feel that with Carson coming in, he’s a veteran but he’s a young veteran. I tell you, the excitement in the building and talking to Frank Reich, I wish you guys could hear his voice and the things we’ve talked about to they point because I really don’t see a lot of weaknesses in Carson’s game, in his leadership and everything he brings to the table. I think they’re all strengths, all a main reason he was the second pick in the draft, a main reason that he was really close to having that incredible year of being that MVP and Super Bowl champion. The injury came in, those things happened but he’s healthy and he’s very excited to be here, and we’re excited to have him.”
And so the Colts truly are all in on Wentz.
“I really do feel — I can’t emphasize how strongly I feel — that Carson is the man for the job for the Colts at this time,” Irsay said. “And believe me, there’s been a lot, as you guys know with the quarterback situation that has happened over the last three years. And to get someone that I really do believe, and I do believe this, after looking at this game for 50 years and seeing guys come and go at that key position, I really think that he can be that guy that’s the centerpiece and the guy that’s going to be around with these teams that we put together for the next decade that give the Colts a chance for greatness. I really feel that.”
Although Irsay stopped short of talking about winning multiple Super Bowl championships with Wentz at quarterback, that’s clearly where it’s heading. If/when Wentz plays for the Colts the way he played in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for the Eagles, Irsay surely will break the Super Bowl Express out of mothballs.
