The Colts will soon be one of the few teams in NFL history to deploy a different Week 1 starting quarterback in six straight seasons, but Chris Ballard communicated with his new starter he will be the one to stop the merry-go-round.
Indianapolis’ sixth-year GM told Matt Ryan he will be the Colts’ starting quarterback for at least two seasons, before the team determines its next path. Ryan’s 2018 extension agreement runs through 2023.
“I wanted to make sure Matt knew that there’s no doubt it’s going to be two years,” Ballard said, via the Indianapolis Star’s Joel Erickson. “And I think we’ll go from there. I think we’ll know. I think both parties will know as we move forward.”
Ryan, 37 in May, has not indicated retirement resides on his near-future radar. The Colts acquired Ryan’s Falcons contract last week, and after the 15th-year passer entered March with what would have been an NFL-record $48.7MM cap number, his 2022 Indy figure comes in at just $18.7MM. The Falcons absorbed a league-record $40MM dead-money hit, and Erickson tweets the Colts converted some of Ryan’s money to a $12MM signing bonus. Ryan’s 2023 cap figure, thanks to a $10MM roster bonus currently guaranteed for injury, checks in at $35.2MM.
The Colts began the past five seasons with Scott Tolzien, Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett, Philip Rivers and Carson Wentz, respectively, at quarterback. Brissett logged the most snaps, replacing Tolzien early in 2017, but the team has not started the same passer in back-to-back seasons under Ballard. The Colts traded Wentz shortly after the Combine, where they did some legwork on Ryan at the Indy-stationed gathering. The Falcons discussed Ryan’s trade value at the Combine, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. They were told Ryan’s contract made anything more than a fourth-rounder difficult, and when the Colts-Falcons trade talks commenced in earnest, Ballard said that was the best he could do. The Falcons talked the Colts up to a third-rounder (No. 82 overall).
Atlanta’s Deshaun Watson investigation process began last season, when the team heard the disgruntled Texans quarterback had interest in playing for his hometown team. The Falcons did not communicate their Watson interest to Ryan until the former was cleared by the first of the two grand juries involved in this saga, Breer adds, noting that the Colts as a Ryan trade suitor before Watson had made his decision. Shortly after Watson chose the Browns, Arthur Smith asked Ryan if he would be interested in the Colts. Ryan soon confirmed he was, leading to the teams’ March 21 deal.
Indianapolis does not have a first-round pick this year, but the team could be back on the radar for a Round 1 QB prospect in 2023. But the Colts and Ryan are hopeful he can play beyond that point.
“If we decided to make a move on a quarterback, that’s definitely a conversation we would have,” Ballard said, via Erickson, of keeping Ryan informed on his potential successor. “In the world that I’ve been living in since Andrew retired, the whole organization, it’d be nice to get some stability where we have a guy for two, three, four years that can play and give us some continuity.”
Ryan is a basically just a game manager. It’s a shame the Colts couldn’t get an actual threat at QB. Due to this, the Colts are going to absolutely run Taylor into the ground over the next few seasons (much like this past season). He’ll likely be washed up by 28, like so many other rb’s who’s teams had similar game plans. It is what it is. Bell cow RB’s just tend to have very short shelf lives these days.
What’s odd is they could have, and didn’t. Baker made a lot of sense for them. You saw how well he did when he’s healthy in 2020 in almost the same system.
Ryan….is just odd. Like a worse version of Rivers? What about that season 2 years ago did the colts think was so grea they wanted to see it again?
I disagree. The one thing Rivers was great at was involving all in the passing game. Hines was a much larger part of the offense and so were the TEs. I think Taylor will get no more than the same number of carries next year, perhaps a few less, with a more balanced and successful passing attack that spreads the ball around. Ryan may be getting older but he’s better than Rivers at this point in their careers. Ryan makes Indy a playoff team capable of advancing beyond the 1st round.
The weird thing is, most of the Colts starters have been decent quarterbacks-Rivers, Ryan, and Wentz are a better group than most single season starters, and Brissett is a good backup. Despite that, Indianapolis hasn’t had great postseason success, though they’ve posted acceptable or good records. They obviously value the quarterback position and do not have the same views about tanking that the 2011 regime did.
That said, there haven’t really been any can’t miss QBs in the draft in the last two years by pre-draft standards (other than Lawrence, who’s still finding his feet). Maybe the Colts are just really particular about high picks on QBs, or maybe they just like proven veterans. Either way, it’s interesting to me how many quarterbacks with long resumes that they’ve managed to pull in Indy for single seasons, because usually when that happens the players are fringe roster types.
Brissette is garbage.
As insightful as that is, you have to consider him in context with other backup options. I certainly wouldn’t consider Brissett a starting caliber quarterback, but he’s better than most backups in the league.
I simply know what Brissett is: a backup that when thrust into a game isn’t capable of keeping a team in the game. If forced to start 6 games a team will inevitably go 1-5, 2-4 at best. Backups I would rather have: Bridgewater, Minshew, Love, Taylor, Simien, Dalton, Huntley, Allen, Rudolph, Johnson, Henne, Ehlinger, Daniel, Heinicke, Foles, Blough, Mond, Walker, McCoy, and several out of the draft this year. For the money and production I’ll take just about anyone over Brissett.
I’ll give you Bridgewater, Minshew, and Dalton for certain.
The other players you listed, however, are either extremely comparable to Brissett or highly volatile. Take Love, for instance. The only action we’ve seen from him was a disaster against KC. Could he be better than Jacoby? Possibly, but I can’t come to that conclusion based on what I’ve witnessed.
Some of these are a bit ridiculous in my opinion: the likes of David Blough and PJ Walker are not going to keep any team competitive.
Brissett is who he is: a decent backup. Nobody is suggesting he’s a starter or anything, but he’s at least capable of keeping a decent team around .500 (as demonstrated in 2019). Claiming he’s garbage is hyperbolic
I’d rather play Kaep lolll
No excuses in Indy this year – they’ll either have to make a strong playoff run or admit the team they constructed isn’t as good as they think it is.
Didn’t they make similar remarks about Wentz last year ?
Doubt
Cheering for Matty. Was never fully appreciated in Atlanta. Always a class act, team player didn’t throw teammates, coaches or management under the wheels. He didn’t call the plays in the Super Bowl failure.
Now all he needs is some receivers to throw to.