Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan is signed on for at least two more seasons as the team’s starter, but owner Jim Irsay is hoping his stay will be longer than that.
In speaking with reporters during the 2022 NFL draft, Irsay said that he hopes Ryan will be around much longer than the recent run of quarterbacks, who have been one-and-done for the last four seasons since the retirement of Andrew Luck.
“We hope Matt can be here for four years, maybe,” Irsay said via Mike Wells of ESPN. “We certainly have our radar out for a young guy that can be the long-term future.”
Irsay’s love for Ryan is the polar opposite of how he spoke of Carson Wentz at this same time last year. With Ryan, he couldn’t be happier to have the veteran leading the team. With Wentz, it was more “we’ll go as far as he can take us.”
Irsay raved about Ryan, his leadership and what he can bring to the Colts offense beginning in 2022.
“I can’t say enough about Matt Ryan,” Irsay said. “There’s no way I can sit here and explain to you, unless you look at [general manager] Chris [Ballard] and [coach] Frank [Reich] and different people in this organization eyes and see the difference that goes on right now because of Matt Ryan being in this building. His professionalism, his stature still at 36 and coming in here and we really are fortunate.”
The Colts added some weapons for Ryan in the draft. They took athletic wide receiver Alec Pierce and arguably the most athletic tight end to ever come out of the draft in Jelani Woods. They also got him some protection in third-round pick Bernhard Raimann, who could be the starting left tackle come Week 1.
We’ll see how much longer Ryan will be wearing the horseshoe, but Irsay is hoping for it to be a much longer tenure than recent signal-callers.
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