Colts fleeced Falcons in trade for Matt Ryan, a QB who can help them win now | Opinion
This trade for quarterback Matt Ryan doesn’t seem real, because it’s great news for the Indianapolis Colts, and they never have great news. Not at quarterback. Everyone is reporting this trade is a done deal, but it sounds impossible:
Matt Ryan for a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft?
And … what else?
Because there has to be something else. Like, maybe the Colts also have to send Atlanta a first-rounder in 2023. Or they have to send Quenton Nelson or Darius Leonard or Kenny Moore. Because there’s no way this is true, that the Colts just acquired a four-time Pro Bowl quarterback still putting up numbers close to his career average, and they acquired him – they acquired Matt Ryan? – for a third-round pick.
These are the Colts’ five most recent third-round picks:
2020: Safety Julian Blackmon
2019: Linebacker Bobby Okereke
2017: Defensive end Tarell Basham
2016: Offensive tackle Le’Raven Clark
2015: Defensive tackle Henry Anderson
WINNERS, LOSERS: Breaking down Falcons' trade of Matt Ryan to Colts
Which one of those guys would you not trade, straight up, right now, for a quarterback who should solve the Colts’ ongoing quarterback problem for the next two or three years?
No, this feels wrong. What’s the NFL’s code of conduct policy as it pertains to a franchise’s general manager? Because if this trade is legit, Colts general manager Chris Ballard just committed larceny.
Carson Wentz for Matt Ryan and a third-rounder? Just happened
Hey, you’re not wrong. Matt Ryan is, in fact, 36. And – spoiler – he’ll be 37 in May. That’s not young. It’s not, however, old. Not for a quarterback. Tom Brady is an ageless freak so let’s not go there, but Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Stafford and, yes, Philip Rivers have redefined “old” as it relates to NFL quarterbacks.
Ryan isn’t the Colts’ long-term quarterback of the future, but how greedy were you going to be?
The Colts were never going to land any of the top quarterbacks thought to be on the market this offseason, Russell Wilson (too expensive) or Aaron Rodgers (too elusive) or Deshaun Watson (too offensive). There isn’t a sure-thing quarterback in the 2022 NFL draft, not one guy that you just know will be a franchise quarterback. There are a handful of such guys in the 2023 draft class, so if this Matt Ryan experiment goes wrong, the Colts can try again.
But what are we saying? This Matt Ryan experiment isn’t going to go wrong. Why are you even using that word, experiment? This is no experiment. That implies hypotheses and unknowns. It implies Bunsen burners and beaker tubes.
People don’t conduct experiments with world-class quarterbacks with world-class leadership skills and years left at the tail end of their prime. People acquire those guys, and the Colts just did, and they did it so cheaply that it feels wrong. Like, where’s Lucy to pull that football away from the Colts, sending them flying into the air and landing on their butt, or on Baker Mayfield?
Put it this way: The Colts traded Carson Wentz and his $28.3 million salary cap hit in 2022 for two third-rounders. The Colts acquired Ryan and his $23.5 million hit for only one third-rounder.
Tell the truth: If one month ago today the Colts had traded Carson Wentz to the Falcons and received Ryan and a third-round pick, you also would've been wondering about the NFL’s personal conduct policy as it relates to general managers. Because that trade would’ve been felonious. Mug shots, arrest reports, all of that. Seriously, swapping Wentz for Ryan and getting a third-rounder to boot – plus nearly $5 million extra room under the salary cap?
That’s what Chris Ballard has essentially done. I’m looking around for the rest of the story, the bad news lurking. Like, does Ryan have an os trigonum bone? Is Tom Brady en route to the Colts’ complex on 56th Street to deflate the footballs until they’re flat? Is Jordan Bohannon going to hit a last-second 3-pointer off the glass?
We know bad news around here.
This trade is hard to believe.
Matt Ryan isn't elite anymore, but he isn't Wentz, Mayfield or Jimmy G either
Hey, you’re not wrong. Matt Ryan isn’t quite what he was in 2016, when he was NFL MVP, or in 2010, ’12 or ’14, when he was a Pro Bowler.
But he’s not Carson Wentz. Not Baker Mayfield nor Jimmy Garoppolo, either.
Last season Ryan threw for 3,968 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He completed 67% of his passes. He had a 90.4 passer rating. I’ll concede: Wentz’s numbers (3,563 yards, 27 TD’s, 7 INT’s, 62.4% accuracy, 94.6 passer rating) were much better in spots, slightly worse in spots, and slightly better overall.
But if this were only about the numbers, Wentz would still be here. Seriously, who gives up on a quarterback coming off a season with 27 TDs and 7 INTs?
The Colts did, because numbers are just part of the quarterback equation. We all saw what we saw from Wentz off the field – some of us gasped, some of us shrugged – but only the Colts know what he was like behind closed doors. Yes, I’ve heard Darius Leonard posted something positive on Instagram about Wentz after he was traded to Washington. That’s nice.
But the Colts gave up on Wentz for a reason, and it’s not because that mean ol’ guy at the IndyStar kept writing those mean ol’ stories. It’s because the Colts, as a franchise, didn’t believe in Wentz anymore.
Matt Ryan? You can believe in that guy, on and off the field. No, you’re not wrong – how many times do I have to say this? – Ryan doesn’t have many years left. But show me a better option.
Not “Aaron Rodgers” or “Kyler Murray” or even “Derek Carr.” Those guys are under contract. Their teams aren’t trading them.
Show me a better realistic option. As I’ve said, Wilson was never coming here from Seattle. Too expensive in a trade, and he had the power to dictate where he wanted to go. He didn’t want to come here. No offense taken. Watson was never coming here, and anyway, if you think that mean ol’ guy at the IndyStar was hard on Wentz, well ...
But we don’t have to worry about Watson’s current off-field legal problems or his future behavior. We don’t have to worry about Garoppolo’s injury issues or Baker Mayfield’s maturity issues. We don’t have to worry about some rookie coming here and flopping.
What we know is this: The Colts still have holes to fill – left tackle and receiver, mainly – but they have some great players in their prime (Leonard, Nelson, Moore, Jonathan Taylor, DeForest Buckner, Ryan Kelly, even new defensive end Yannick Ngakoue), and they needed a quarterback who can win right now.
Matt Ryan can win right now.
And the Colts got him for a third-round draft pick? I’m hearing angels sing. Unless those are sirens.