The Falcons and Colts stole headlines yesterday when Atlanta shipped quarterback Matt Ryan to Indianapolis. While it was still a bit jarring to see the Falcons trade their long-time QB, the deal didn’t come as a complete surprise. After all, the Falcons pursued Deshaun Watson before he landed with the Browns, and Ryan’s name was on the trade block even before this offseason.
Ryan spoke with reporters today and admitted that the constant trade chatter did get to him a bit.
“I didn’t like everything I heard but you don’t always like what you hear sometimes,” Ryan said (via NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on Twitter). “But [the Falcons] were professional and handled it well. I knew at some point I was going to have to make a decision on whether or not I would stay.”
Ryan also said that Indy was the only destination he wanted to go to if he didn’t end up back in Atlanta (per Garafolo on Twitter).
Some more notes regarding yesterday’s trade:
- Ryan met with the Colts on Saturday night, requesting to explore his options elsewhere after the Watson developments, per D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That meeting ended up swaying him to join the organization vs. staying with the Falcons, per Garafolo (on Twitter). “The time was just right for me and I felt I needed to do it,” Ryan said of his decision to move on.
- The Colts picked up Ryan’s $7.5MM roster bonus and added guarantees to the entirety of his two-year deal, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). The deal still has nearly $54MM remaining.
- OverTheCap.com has provided some insight on what those next two years will look like for Indy’s cap sheet. Ryan will have a $24.7MM cap hit this upcoming season and a $29.2MM cap hit in 2023. Meanwhile, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero tweets that the Falcons will carry $40.52MM in dead cap this season thanks to the trade. Incredibly, that’s $9MM in savings for the organization.
Now, if only they had some wide receivers that were worth a damn