Jim Irsay never sees the glass as more than half.
The Colts owner, who had high hopes for several championships with Peyton Manning as a defender and then Andrew Luck at the helm, remains optimistic about the future, even with Manning and Luck away.
“I really believe that you will see a golden age unfold as we enter this decade sitting here in 2021,” Irsay said on Thursday at a news conference introducing quarterback Carson Wentz. “I believe with all my heart and soul. There are good reasons to believe. You talk to people in the league and people who know, they’ll agree with what I’m saying when they look at Chris Ballard and Frank Reich and the expectations for this decade that we have for the two leading the team. . . .
“But I really feel that, with Carson’s arrival, he is a veteran, but he is a young veteran. I tell you, the excitement in the building and talking to Frank Reich, I wish you could hear his voice and the things we talked about until they pointed out because I really don’t see many weaknesses in Carson’s game, in his leadership and everything what he brings to the table. I think they are all strengths, all a main reason why he was the second choice in the draft, a main reason that he was really close to having that amazing year of being that MVP and Super Bowl champion. The injury came, these things happened, but he is healthy and very excited to be here, and we are excited to have him ”.
And then the Colts are really in Wentz.
“I really feel – I can’t emphasize how strongly I feel – that Carson is the right man for the Colts right now,” said Irsay. “And believe me, there has been a lot, as you know, with the defender situation that happened in the last three years. And to get someone I really believe in, and I believe in that, after looking at this game for 50 years and seeing the guys come and go in a key position, I really think he can be that guy who is the centerpiece and the guy this will happen with these teams that we set up in the next decade and that will give the Colts a chance for greatness. I really feel it. “
Although Irsay has stopped talking about winning several Super Bowl championships with Wentz as a defender, it is clearly where he is going. If / when Wentz plays for the Colts the same way he played in 2017, 2018 and 2019 for the Eagles, Irsay will certainly get the Super Bowl Express out of mothball balls.