You can likely count Carson Wentz among the masses waiting for the Aaron Rodgers circus to collapse its tent.
For much of the NFL offseason, the most discussed talking point—to our great dismay—has been about the future of Aaron Rodgers. The subject of where the quarterback might play, or even if he will play, has been debated from all sides. It's all well and good for a while—but in Rodgers' case, it's become a bit too much.
The drama of whether or not he will sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers remains very much in play. The latest rumors have the Steelers "firmly believing" that he will sign with the team at some point. Mike Tomlin should hope so because going a whole season in the AFC with Mason Rudolph and company is not the answer.
But the problem is that Rodgers hasn't yet signed. He's still waiting in the wings. And that means that the top available quarterback in free agency won't move out of the way for the sake of the others—like Carson Wentz.
The market for free agent quarterbacks isn't going anywhere with Aaron Rodgers' indecision hanging around.
Wentz was the primary backup for Patrick Mahomes on the Kansas City Chiefs' roster a year ago. While he wasn't given a chance to really prove he could still be a starter—and a Week 18 exhibition against the Denver Broncos didn't help matters at all—Wentz is still the best product sitting on NFL store shelves for teams who might want to add a veteran arm.
Still only 32 years old, Wentz has a 47-46-1 career record as a starting quarterback, and it wasn't too long ago (2021) that he had 27 touchdown passes and only 7 interceptions for the Indianapolis Colts. No one is mistaking Wentz as a potential franchise face anymore, but a team could certainly do a lot worse at backup quarterback or even an interim bridge.
That said, the market has been quite cold for Wentz. The Browns had reported interest, but they've signed Joe Flacco and drafted Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders since then. In fact, the Browns have five total quarterbacks on the roster, so it's not as if Wentz can expect that door to open.
As for the Chiefs, they've moved on to Gardner Minshew as their primary backup for Mahomes. Minshew signed a one-year deal in free agency, becoming the latest veteran to stop in for a season after Wentz and Blaine Gabbert in the previous two years.
Maybe Wentz will finally get the calls he's been waiting on when Rodgers decides his fate one way or the other. Our guess is that Rodgers isn't in any hurry at all to be a part of a team's preseason workouts, so Wentz might have to sit around until the season gets a lot closer.