A way outside the box idea about trading Matt Ryan
 

Right now, his $35 Million cap hit for 2023, looms above us like a modern day sword of Damocles. His retirement or a trade would chop that number to a much more palatable $6 Million.

The ideal, of course, would be for Matt to hang up his spurs and ride off into the sunset. I, however, don’t see that happening. Apparently, Matt believes he still has a few good years left in his trusty right arm.

So, we trade him. The problem is that that’s easier said than done. $12 Million of his 2023 contract is guaranteed, and it might well serve as a poison pill in any trade negotiations.

So, if I’m running the team, I pick up the phone and make someone an offer they can’t refuse. I give them Ryan and a 3rd round pick in 2024 in exchange for a 7th round pick in this year’s draft. I know it’s a nutty idea, and the league might not/probably wouldn’t greenlight that kind of deal. But, the season’s over, the bleak times have arrived, and I have a lot of time to indulge silly fantasies.

The Texans did this when they traded Brock Osweiler to the Browns after thd 2016 season, although it ended up costing them a 2nd rounder in the following years draft. Here's the details:

Browns got: Osweiler, 2017 6th rounder, 2018 2nd rounder

Houston got: 2017 4th rounder

Dont hold your breath

Why would the Colts do this? Just eat the $18 million dead money, get the $17.2 million cap savings, trade up for Stroud, and you're paying about going rate for the QB position in the NFL, maybe even slightly under market for 2023. No draft capital required.

Unless the team changes philosophies and actually wants to push to win next year, you just take the hit next year. You don’t trade future assets just to clean up your books. You cut him.

The problem is that the Colts have only $17 Million in cap space, and a big chunk of that will have to go towards signing the 2023 rookie class and filling out the bottom of the roster with the kind of minimum salary guys needed to get to 51 players.

Our effective cap number is a shade over $9.7 Million.

Cutting Ryan pushes that to $27 Million, but trading him gets you to 39,, and $39 Million lets you resign Yannick Ngakoue, Parris Campbell, EJ Speed, Ashton Dulin, Chase McLaughlin, and Tyquan Lewis without having to restructure the contracts of guys like Nelson, Smith, and Kelly.

Now,, if Those guys were performing at a high level, you’d think nothing of reworking their contracts and pushing a big chunk of cap money into the future. But, if you end up cutting one or more of them after another disappointing season, that $30 Million becomes dead money, and dead money is a salary cap albatross that Chris Ballard treats like the plague.

I don't see any of those guys other than Ngakoue making any real money. Maybe Speed, but you'd think we'd be able to re-sign him pretty cheap. Also, we can cut Kelly and save ~$8M against the cap next year.

Every time I see these Ryan numbers I wonder what pictures Ballard has of Irsay! After what happened with Wentz, to double down on Ryan and still have a job...dude has to have some wild pictures in his safe!:D

Why would we re-sign Ngakoue?

And with an O line in flux, you cut Kelly, how do you replace him? Sign a FA? That will be expensive for a decent replacement. Draft isnt always a guarantee of success. Pinter as the starter?