The Indianapolis Colts made their move for a quarterback last week by trading a third-round pick to the Atlanta Falcons for quarterback Matt Ryan.
While this shouldn’t keep the Colts from drafting a quarterback if they wanted to in April, it gives them some stability at the position for the next two seasons—probably.
In ranking the offseason’s quarterback moves, Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports had some praise for the Colts. The move ranked second only behind the Broncos’ trade of Russell Wilson.
“This is no doubt another Band-Aid move for Indianapolis, so the clock is still ticking (again) on Chris Ballard and Co. finding a signal-caller for the long term. It’s also not necessarily a home run of a Band-Aid when you consider Ryan has been a solid but not great starter for roughly three years and counting — the kind of fine-but-replaceable veteran they just traded away in Carson Wentz. Approaching 37, Ryan is also not quite Matthew Stafford in terms of gas left in the tank.
And yet, despite all that, the value here is borderline tremendous; by getting a pair of threes for Wentz, Ballard essentially flipped his last QB rental for Ryan and a third-rounder. And limited as he may be, Ryan’s floor figures to be in the ballpark of 2021 Wentz. It’s not hard to envision him playing rejuvenated behind a much better setup than he had in Atlanta, leaning on the ground game and returning the Colts to the playoffs. With the Falcons eating some of his remaining five-year, $150M extension, Ryan makes for a safe and reliable, if unspectacular, short-term answer.”
The Colts still need to add weapons around Ryan to make this move worth it. It will be hard for him to consistently move the offense if Michael Pittman Jr. is the only reliable target for the second season in a row.
But the move, in a vacuum, is hard to argue against. The Colts admitted their mistake (a big one) when it came to Carson Wentz and were able to salvage some of that value. Then they turned around to upgrade the position with Ryan while saving some room against the cap all the while.
This offseason will be pretty vital when it comes to setting Ryan up for success in 2022 but the move should be met with praise given the upgrade and the value they got for him.
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