PFF: Kenny Moore II, Carson Wentz Have Colts' Best, Worst Contracts, Respectively
The Indianapolis Colts have already wrapped up the offseason workout portion of their calendar and are in a holding pattern until training camp in late July.
What are we supposed to do until then?
If you're Pro Football Focus, you're evaluating rosters and contracts around the league. Recently, they compiled a list of the best and worst contracts from each team, and their results for the Colts were unsurprising as they selected cornerback Kenny Moore II as the best contract and quarterback Carson Wentz as the worst.
The Colts don't typically carry bad contracts. They rely heavily on rookie contracts and then grab moderate free agents on cheap deals, typically amounting to three years or less in length.
However, each team still has a contract that you can look at and wonder if it could be re-worked as well as ones to marvel at how much of a bargain they are.
Best: Slot cornerback Kenny Moore II – Four years, $33.3 million ($3.5 million in remaining guarantees)
PFF’s No. 1 slot cornerback in the NFL heading into the 2021 season, Moore has been a star in Indianapolis the past three seasons, earning the second-best overall grade (87.8) and coverage grade (87.5) among slot cornerbacks. This is a prime example of a deal that provides exceptional value in an absolute sense. Even with Moore being one of the highest-paid pure slot corners in the NFL, his contract provides tremendous value at just $8.325 million per year, which ranks 23rd among all cornerbacks.
Moore became the NFL's highest-paid slot defender when he signed his contract extension during the 2019 offseason but at this point, he comes at a bargain. In terms of the total value of his contract, his $33.3 million is currently 16th among all NFL corners and his average of $8.325 per year is 25th, according to Spotrac.
Moore is probably the second or third most important defender on the Colts, and he rarely leaves the field. He led all Colts corners in snaps in 2018 (911), had the most snaps of any Colts defender in 2020 (952), and was on pace to do it in 2019 as well if an ankle injury hadn't cost him five games (had 631, was on pace for 917).
The cerebral, versatile, fifth-year defender seems to excel in every area of the game, whether it's in coverage, run support, blitzing, or making plays on the ball.
Worst: Quarterback Carson Wentz — Four years, $98.4 million ($35.4 million in active guarantees, $7 million remaining 2022 salary guarantee vests March 2022)
Wentz’s $33.8 million in 2021 dead money left behind with the Eagles arguably makes him the worst contract for them too, but we’ll stick with his current team for now. It’s not Wentz’s fault that the Eagles structured his extension the way they did, but nevertheless, the Indianapolis Colts still inherited quite a hefty deal in their own right.
No matter which metric you choose, Wentz was one of the league’s worst signal-callers in 2020. His 24 turnover-worthy plays and 50 sacks taken were both the most in the NFL, and he was benched for the final four games of the season. A change of scenery will hopefully get him back on track, but if it doesn’t, the Colts did the Eagles a huge favor here by absorbing the remaining years of this deal.
Like Moore, Wentz signed his contract extension with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2019 offseason. At the time, it was a great deal for a former MVP candidate. Teams have to pony up that kind of money to quarterbacks if they wanted to keep them long-term.
The issue became that the Eagles — Wentz included — unraveled within the following two seasons and the two sides didn't want to be together anymore. His lowly play made that contract and its guarantees look much more bloated.
The Colts took a chance on Wentz and that contract this offseason, hoping that head coach Frank Reich can rekindle the flame that he and Wentz had when the pair were in Philadelphia together from 2016-17 and the Eagles were on top of the NFL world.
If this deal works out for the Colts then they'd be more than happy to pay this market price for a starting quarterback who hopefully gives them some above-average play.
If Wentz stays scratching his floor rather than his ceiling, the contract is a gut punch.
What do you think of these deals? Drop your thoughts below in the comment section!
