Why not ryan?

[JAFF]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...is/7117531001/

Insider: After Deshaun Watson trade, the Colts and Matt Ryan have decisions to make
Nate Atkins
Indianapolis Star
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As the latest NFL quarterback carousel continues to turn, a commercial has been popping up between March Madness games. It stars Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in an AT&T store.

"Oh, so I get it: So you can take your old phone that you've had for 12 years and loved every minute of and trade it in for something new that fits your life now?" he asks an employee. "And then enjoy immediate success, even though you'll never forget your old phone? Ever?"

"It's a great trade," the employee says back.

"Lifechanging," Stafford says with a wink.


By now, millions of people have seen the ad. Likely, so has a certain quarterback of the Falcons.

Following Tom Brady in Tampa Bay the previous season, Stafford is the latest winner of the NFL's shifting power dynamic. He requested a trade from a Lions franchise he'd spent 12 years with to join the all-in Rams and won the Super Bowl the very next year.


In the process, he rewrote narratives and yet remained beloved in Detroit, which lived vicariously through his new journey after the time he spent chasing theirs.

The move was "life-changing," and in a copycat league, others are following suit. This offseason, Russell Wilson forced a trade from the Seahawks to the Broncos and Deshaun Watson forced one from the Texans to the Browns.

Matt Ryan has to ask himself if he wants to be next.

The Colts have to be eager to find out.

Ryan, a four-time Pro Bowler with nearly 60,000 career yards, set out this offseason to return for a 15th season with the Falcons, the franchise that drafted him No. 3 out of Boston College in 2008.

Matt Ryan has had a prolific career with the Atlanta Falcons, throwing for 367 touchdowns to 170 interceptions with six playoff appearances, but he has yet to win a Super Bowl.
Then the landscape shifted. Brady unretired with the Buccaneers, likely dashing Atlanta's NFC South hopes. Watson became available. Atlanta rolled out the red carpet for a hometown superstar despite the 22 civil complaints of sexual misconduct.

Unlike Baker Mayfield, who took to social media and requested a trade from the Browns amid their Watson courtship, Ryan kept quiet. It was a place the franchise legend had never been in before.


MORE:Baker Mayfield would like a trade to the Colts. But should the Colts want Mayfield?

After Watson turned down the Falcons for the Browns, Ryan has to decide what the timing and events mean for him.

Watson chose the Browns thanks to the largest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history at five years and $230 million, a deal that now gives leverage to franchise quarterbacks everywhere to guarantee their deals.


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MORE: The Browns land Deshaun Watson. Where do the Colts turn in the QB carousel?

On Saturday, Stafford became the first to strike with a $160 million contract with $130 million in guarantees. He's turning 35, but coming off a Super Bowl, he wields the power.


Among current NFL quarterbacks, nobody is closer to Stafford than Ryan.

They share the same agent, Tom Condon, who negotiated Peyton Manning's deals with the Colts. He's one of a couple power brokers handling major quarterback contracts, building one client's deal off the success of another.

In August 2017, Condon helped Stafford land the biggest contract in NFL history at five years and $135 million. Nine months later, he netted Ryan one for five years and $150 million.

That was the last deal Stafford signed until Saturday. Ryan, meanwhile, is still playing on a deal signed in 2018 that, thanks to Watson and Aaron Rodgers, now feels archaic.

Multiple NFL agents believe that if the Falcons won't present Ryan with a new deal, he will leverage the situation to create a trade elsewhere. They expect it to happen by 4 p.m. Monday, according to a report by the NFL Network, when Ryan is due a $7.5 million roster bonus for 2022, a maneuver he postponed last week in order to allow the Falcons to find a trade partner.

A few years ago, such a power move would not have fit Ryan's lowkey profile. Nor would it have fit Stafford's.


But after 12 seasons in Detroit with three head coaches, Stafford decided he wasn't down for another rebuild and asked for a trade elsewhere that he could help navigate. The Lions honored it and the Rams became the destination.

Los Angeles won the Super Bowl. Detroit obtained two first-round picks to bolster a rebuild.

A similar opportunity exists here for Ryan with the Falcons. And make no mistake, he's paying close attention to Stafford.

Matthew Stafford did not win a playoff game in 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions, but he won four postseason games en route to winning the Super Bowl with the Rams in 2021.
RELATED: Colts could have reached Super Bowl with Matthew Stafford. But was he ever truly an option?

In addition to sharing an agent, both own homes in Georgia, and in the offseason, their families get together as the two quarterbacks train together. This has happened since they rose as college quarterbacks together prior to being drafted in 2008 and 2009.

For a while, their careers mirrored each other, two top-five picks posting prolific passing numbers for dome teams that couldn't win in the postseason. Ryan finally broke through with an MVP and Super Bowl appearance in 2016, but his team choked and the narratives continued.

That is, until Stafford decided to change his.

Ryan is turning 37, three years older than Stafford was at his trade request but a year younger than when Aaron Rodgers won the MVP and seven years younger than when Brady led the league in passing in 2021.

Ryan has two years left on his deal, with yearly payouts of $23.8 million and $28 million, yet his cap hit in 2022 is $37 million for Atlanta.


The Falcons need to replace half a roster, and they need a succession plan to Ryan. That's the spot the Lions were in a year ago.

If Ryan wants a new deal and a new team, the Colts could become his preferred destination, the way they reportedly are for Baker Mayfield. The Colts could be Atlanta's preferred landing spot, considering two of the teams that need quarterbacks, the Saints and Panthers, play in their division.

If the Colts are willing to pay Ryan as a two- or three-year option, he could fit what general manager Chris Ballard is looking for after the Wentz debacle.

"Make the layups," Ballard said. “You’ve got to be able to get the ball out of your hands quickly... that is a big part of Frank’s offense.”

Ryan has always been a quick releaser, a pre-snap processor, compensating for his lack of dynamic legs. Last season, after losing Julio Jones to the Titans and Calvin Ridley for most of the season, he completed 52 passes to running back Cordarrelle Patterson. Those are the opportunities Ballard has said the Colts wasted with Nyheim Hines.

"I'd like to quit band-aiding it," Ballard said of the quarterback position.

At 37, Ryan is not a long-term option, but he doesn't have to be a one-year revolving door like the Colts have had. He's two years younger than Philip Rivers was in 2020. If Ryan wants guarantees, Indianapolis could build a two-year window with a reasonable third to give prime core players like Jonathan Taylor, Quenton Nelson, Darius Leonard, Kenny Moore II and DeForest Buckner a chance to contend.

Those players are watching, after all.



“Ultimately, it’s the most scrutinized position in sports," Ballard said. "You’re playing a position where you’re trying to make accurate throws with people trying to actually hurt you. Then, the scrutiny that comes into play week to week.

"So, handling the ups and downs of it and staying the steady course, there’s so much that goes into it. Then, having a team around him that can win. Not just him but having a team."


Ryan's leadership and professionalism are his top traits. In 14 years in Atlanta, controversies involving the quarterback are basically zero. Contrast that with Wentz just last season or with alternatives like Mayfield or Jameis Winston.

MORE: Baker Mayfield would like a trade to the Colts. But should the Colts want Mayfield?

Stafford and Ryan survived turnover and scrutiny and a lack of playoff success with elite mental toughness. They helped build it in each other.

The supporting cast is key, as Ballard says, because Ryan and the Falcons have not had a winning season in the past four seasons. Last season, Ryan threw 20 touchdowns to 12 interceptions as the Falcons finished 7-10.

But it's been a while since he played with talent.

Taylor won the rushing title with 1,811 yards in 2021. The last time Ryan had a back with half that total came in 2016. That year, he won MVP and went to the Super Bowl.

Last season, the Colts offensive line finished seventh in Football Outsiders' adjusted line yards, and the Falcons 20th.

Michael Pittman Jr., at 6-foot-5 and coming off a 1,000-yard season, could represent a chance to replicate some of the seven Pro Bowl seasons Ryan once enjoyed with Julio Jones.

"(Ryan) fought with nobody around him," said Bryant McFadden, who played cornerback for the Steelers and Cardinals from 2005-2011 and now serves as an analyst. "His best wide receiver (Ridley) was missing the majority of the year. Kyle Pitts emerged as a playmaker at the end of the season. And he was trying to make things happen with no offensive line structure and no running game, but he continued to throw punches.

"Me personally, I love what the Indianapolis Colts have in place. They have an identity and they have a foundation. They're a balanced team. The issue for them last year is that they didn't have a quarterback who could make plays."

Matt Ryan was the No. 3 pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, one year before Matthew Stafford went No. 1 to the Detroit Lions.
Ryan isn't of the age and skill set to outduel the AFC's growing total of superhuman quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Watson, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson.

But he also wouldn't be in a division with any of them. In the AFC South, the best quarterback is currently Ryan Tannehill of the Titans. A division title means a home playoff game in a dome, where Ryan has played all of his home games so far.


"I believe if you add Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts, they have a legit shot to be the Cincinnati Bengals of 2022," McFadden said. "We all know one thing about the NFL: If you get to the playoffs, anything can happen."

First, the Colts need the Falcons to want to trade Ryan or for Ryan to force their hands. Then they must agree on prices, for a salary and for compensation.

If the Falcons are moving off Ryan, they either need ammo to move up in this year's draft for someone like Liberty's Malik Willis or 2023 draft picks in order to game what is expected to be one of the best quarterback drafts in years. The question is how much draft capital the Colts willing to trade for a soon-to-be-37-year-old quarterback.

Right now, the Colts are sitting on a league-high $39.9 million in cap space and have yet to sign an outside offensive free agent.

The Colts had a shot at Stafford a year ago, but the Rams were the aggressors. They settled for a cheaper deal for Wentz, and despite starting 9-6, they spent the postseason at home watching Stafford lead a loaded Rams team to a championship, wondering if they had a team that's the right veteran quarterback away.

Could Ryan be a chance to right those wrongs?

That's what the Colts are asking themselves as the clock ticks toward Tuesday.

[omahacolt]

compensation is a possible why not.

i just don't see a reason to give up much for any of these left over guys

[ChaosTheory]

Of the names currently listed as possibilities, Ryan would be preferable. We can afford him money-wise. But who knows what ATL wants in terms of draft picks and/or players?

[JAFF]

Originally Posted by omahacolt

compensation is a possible why not.

i just don't see a reason to give up much for any of these left over guys

Just getting him off their roster may be enough.

[Hoopsdoc]

Ryan would be my 2nd choice behind Mayfield.

I get the feeling that the Colts don’t have any interest in Mayfield.

[Oldcolt]

I posted on another thread that I think Ryan is our best fit by far. He handled the situation with Watson like a man (didn't say shit-unlike Mayfield who wined all over social media). He would bring a sense of stability and class. He would be an incredible person to tutor whomever we eventually end up with at QB. And I think he gives us a shot in the playoffs if Ballard can give him a few more weapons. I agree with you JAFF that just taking his contract off Atlanta's hands gives them much more options going forward. Next year is a great QB year supposedly and Atlanta has a team full of holes. They are not going anywhere with Ryan, he may want an extension (give the man an extra year to total 3 more years) and why would Atlanta want to do that? Trading him to a team with playoff hopes would probably sit well with the fandom in Atlanta, they love the guy and would be happy like we were that Peyton got another shot. If we go this route it will be an abject failure if we do not address the LT spot adequately. Mobile Ryan isn't. We will know by 4 today as he is do a roster bonus.

Biggest issue is trading him does nothing for Atlanta's cap this year, he will have a 40 million hit on their cap if traded

[Chromeburn]

Ryan is my first choice. I think he is the best of the bunch. I just don’t want to give up a lot of assets for a stop gap.

[CletusPyle]

Never been a fan....but he is accurate and has tons of experience!

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

The national pundits are all indicating talks are progressing.


https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1505954628860534784

The Colts have emerged as the likely landing spot for Falcons QB Matt Ryan, and the two sides are in talks. If Ryan is traded, it’ll almost certainly be Indy. But nothing is done as of now.

https://twitter.com/JayGlazer/status...56857369661447

Atlanta and Colts have been talking about this trade for Matt Ryan for a few days, still a couple of hurdles to finalize but hoping it gets done here soon today.

https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/sta...56229474041866

It’s to the point now where many around the league would be surprised if Matt Ryan to the Colts doesn’t happen.

[Spike]

Let's get a fucking adult in the room at the QB position, Ryan is that adult.