Washington is going back to Carson Wentz as its starting a quarterback, a real what-have-you-done-for-me-lately shot at Taylor Heinicke. Washington went 2-4 under Wentz at the beginning of the year, 5-2-1 under Heinicke, until he struggled at San Francisco last week (like most other quarterbacks this season).
Anyway, Ron Rivera is going with Wentz, at least until he waffles again. Washington hosts Cleveland this week with a playoff spot on the line, and I'm wondering if Wentz's return to the lineup will make the Cleveland defense a viable fantasy starter. Glancing at the past two seasons, well, it depends how you look at it.
Wentz started out pretty rough for the Colts last year, especially in terms of sacks even while playing behind a top offensive line. So they dialed the passing game back, and Wentz's sack-turnover numbers were a lot better for most of the season. But down the stretch, he melted down, and the Colts couldn't wait to get rid of him in the offseason. (In retrospect, maybe they should have been a little more patient.)
Wentz's first six games with Washington were also shaky. He threw 6 interceptions, took 23 sacks and fumbled 6 times.
Shown below are the game logs for Wentz since the start of last season with the Colts and Commanders. The totals show that in 23 games he was sacked 55 times and turned it over 19 times, with 8 additional fumbles that were recovered by his own team.
| CARSON WENTZ GAME LOG, 2021-2022 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Opp | Int | Sack | Fum | FL |
| 2021 | IND | Sea. | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | IND | LAR | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at Ten. | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at Mia. | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at Bal. | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | IND | Hou. | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at S.F. | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | IND | Ten. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | NYJ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | Jac. | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at Buf. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | T.B. | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | IND | at Hou. | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | N.E. | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at Ariz. | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | L.V. | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | IND | at Jac. | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022 | WAS | Jac. | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | WAS | at Det. | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | WAS | Phil. | 0 | 9 | 2 | 1 |
| 2022 | WAS | at Dal. | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | WAS | Ten. | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | WAS | at Chi. | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 13 | 55 | 14 | 6 | ||
In general, I'd say Wentz is a good matchup for a defense -- an average of about 2.5 sacks and a turnover a game -- but not a given that it will be a huge performance by Cleveland. If the offense is able to lead with the run and minimize the chances Wentz has to take, as the Colts were able to do for a lot of last season, he should be OK. And that should be very possible this week against a Browns defense that's struggled against the run all year.
--Andy Richardson