Whither Wentz

 So the Indianapolis Colts got their man -- and for a song! -- and now they are GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL, BABY!

No, really. I heard that yesterday, from the more overheated quadrants of Horsey Nation.

I heard with Carson Wentz, the sky's the limit, and he didn't cost that much. A third-round pick and a provisional second-round pick is all it took, and presumably a couple of boxtops from the Post cereal of your choice.

So nothing, basically!

And what are they getting?

Well, the narrative in Indy is they're getting Carson Wentz 2016/2017, before he blew up the knee. In Indy, unlike in Philly, he'll have an offensive line that can block a doorway and dynamic wide receivers and a couple of decent tight ends, plus an emerging force at running back in Jonathan Taylor. And he'll have Frank Reich, the Quarterback Whisperer himself, who turned Wentz 2016/2017 into the shiny bursting-with-promise model he was.

If he can pull that out of Wentz again, then, yes, Indianapolis will have itself a very good football team. Perhaps a very, very good football team.

Except ...

Except now comes the part where the Blob, inveterate rain-er on parades that it is, breaks out the umbrellas. 

To begin with ... if you're getting Carson Wentz for the aforementioned boxtops, what does that mean?

A third-rounder and a provisional second-rounder means what you're not getting is showroom-floor stuff, and that's Wentz all over. You're getting a quarterback with a surgical knee and back issues and concussion issues. You're getting a quarterback who -- because of his innate North Dakota toughness, and an offensive line that couldn't block a doorway -- has spent the last three seasons getting the brick-and-mortar knocked out of him.

You're getting late-stage Andrew Luck, is what you're getting. Minus a couple pages on the calendar.

This is not as gloomy as it sounds, understand. Late-stage Andrew Luck put up some numbers in his last full season with the Colts; in that season, 2018, he threw for 4,593 yards and 39 touchdowns and completed 68 percent of his passes. So there's that.

But there's also this: He played hurt again. And the cumulative effect of playing hurt again, combined with all the other times he played hurt, was finally too much. And he abruptly walked away from the game right before the 2019 season.

This did not mean Luck was weak or a bad teammate or didn't love the game enough, as some of the more witless Barcalounger warriors claimed.  What it meant is that playing professional football is a hard dollar, maybe the hardest dollar there is in Sportsball World. You spend most of your waking hours in some degree of pain. Your body slowly breaks down. One too many knocks to the head, and you can literally lose your mind.

And so here comes Carson Wentz, who's been knocked in the head and the knee and the back and lord knows where else playing behind that breezeway of an O-line in Philly. About the best you can say right now is he'll be safer in Indy, and he'll be reunited with the man who made him a sensation in his one golden season. So there's a chance he could regain some of Wentz 2016/2017.

But all of it?

Well. He's four years older chronologically, and eons older physically and mentally. So we shall see.

But if the best he can do is Andrew Luck 2018?

Horsey Nation will take that, and with extra gravy. You bet.