Indianapolis – During the flight home from Jacksonville on his plane, Colts Owner Jim Irsay stewed with anger that his team went from a 98% chance of making the playoffs with 2 regular season games left to the most embarrassing loss in Indianapolis Colts franchise history, leaving his team on the outside looking in. It was then that Jim Irsay made the decision that the Colts would have a new starting QB in 2022.
The free agent QB market was seen by those around the NFL as very weak. Does Jameis Winston who is rehabbing a torn ACL float your boat? If not, what about often injured Marcus Mariota who has never put up exceptional stats in the NFL? The Colts had to turn to a trade and after the dust had settled with Rodgers, Wilson, and Watson finding homes for next season the #1 option became evident. Chris Ballard made quick work to reel in the best option for the Colts to win in 2022, Matt Ryan from the Atlanta Falcons.
Although he will be 37 by the time next season rolls around, Frank Reich believes that Matt Ryan will be able to “hit the layups” in his offense like Phillip Rivers did in 2020. Something that Carson Wentz struggled with in his lone season in Indy.
Matt Ryan’s PFF passing grade is over 20 points higher indoors than it is outside over the last 2 seasons.
Last place he wants to go is Cleveland.
— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) March 18, 2022
Lucky for the Colts that 12/17 of their games next season will be played indoors.
By quickly looking at raw stats from a year ago comparing Matt Ryan to Carson Wentz, fans may be disappointed. Wentz had more TD’s and fewer interceptions than Ryan. However, that doesn’t tell the full story:
Last year in Atlanta, Matt Ryan had a 29th-ranked defense and a 31st-ranked run game. Calvin Ridley was hurt half the year.
Colts were 9th in defense and 2nd in the run. He’ll join a team with a better o-line and some emerging weapons in Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman, Jr.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) March 21, 2022
When the Colts brought in aging veteran Philip Rivers in 2020, one of the major weaknesses to his game was his arm strength. 38 year old Philip Rivers wasn’t able to stretch the field like Frank Reich would’ve liked. Even though Matt Ryan will be 37 by the start of the season, arm strength isn’t an issue for the new Colts QB:
some negative talk about Matt Ryan’s arm strength
in passes thrown 15+ yards, last year Ryan ranked:
#2 in catchable rate
#5 in on-target rate
out of 30 QBs with 50+ attempts
now he has a better line & stays indoors@DanPizzuta breaks down the trade:https://t.co/qC6lSiQcuB
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 21, 2022
Finally, everyone knows that GM Chris Ballard loves his NFL Draft picks. The Colts had picks 42 (2nd round, from Washington), 73 (3rd round, from Washington), 82, 122, 159, 179, 216, and 239. For Matt Ryan the Colts had to give up a 3rd round pick. However, Ballard was able to hold on to the higher 3rd round pick from Washington (73rd overall) and gave up pick #82 instead.
wow, so the Colts…
• added Matt Ryan
• lost Carson Wentz
• weren’t forced to extend Ryan’s deal
• gained a 3rd that may be a 2nd
• made ATL eat $40,525,000 dead cap*
• lowered Ryan’s 2022 cap hit to $28M, less than Carson Wentz’s
*largest in NFL history
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 21, 2022
Chris Ballard found himself in a sticky situation at the end of the regular season but was able to upgrade to a better, cheaper QB, and acquire more draft assets in the process. A pretty impressive feat.
To hear full reaction to the news as well as what the Colts do now to put weapons around Ryan, listen to 107.5 The Fan afternoon host JMV’s break down of where this leaves the Colts now!
