We end the season, Irsay is pissed beyond belief-seems to blame Wentz, Ballard lets everyone with a brain know that Wentz is a gonner. From that to where we are now at QB, essentially trading Wentz for Ryan and either a second or third round draft choice while lowering our cap hit for QB AND not extending Ryan when every QB traded gets an extension shows that I personally don't know shit. This is the work of someone who is pretty damn good at his job. Well done Ballard. You are the man. Very tasty crow I might add.

Here are a few tweets from Stampede Blue writer Chris Shepherd, who analyzed the film on Ryan and concluded that he's nowhere near being over the hill:

https://twitter.com/NFLscheme/status...74550889508865

https://twitter.com/NFLscheme/status...75638976520203

https://twitter.com/NFLscheme/status...24738224463878

Amazing how quickly the Colts' league-high cap space has disappeared now that a QB is here. Only $16M or so left.

The 3rd rounder going to Atlanta is apparent the Colts third-rounder (no. 82). The Colts keep the better third rounder (no 73) obtained from Washington, per the below Joel Erickson tweet:

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...69182512496651

So for swapping out Wentz for Ryan, the Colts receive:

Slightly higher 2nd and 3rd round picks this year
At least a 3rd next year (but hopefully a 2nd)
about $4M more in cap space this year ($24M to Ryan vs. $28M to Wentz)
Puck remains here and won't curse Ballard or the Colts

But the Colts lose:

7th Rounder this year
2M in cap space next year ($28M to Ryan vs. $26M to Wentz)
One remaining year of Wentz control at a QB-reasonable salary ($28M)

Obviously the Colts can win now. Curious to see what else they do in FA and the draft.

The other perk with this whole deal is that 2023 is supposed to be deep at QB. Ryan didn't force a contract extension on his 2-yrs, so it could be a great situation to bring a young guy in under him. The fact that the Colts will seemingly come out of this Wentz-Ryan transition with an added 2nd-rounder means we are back to having capital if Ballard wants to move up for a guy.

The recovery by Ballard on a poor trade result from Wentz has been pretty amazing.

Ballard pisses me off sometimes, but this was a hell of a deal he made. Now, LT and a WR/TE.

can't be mad at that.


he made a mistake with wentz and did what he had to do to fix it. and he fixed it and then some. that is what you want. don't live with a mistake if you can fix it

Not my preferred choice, but I don't hate it either. Hopefully he has a few years left. Getting him for just a 3rd is pretty great.

they also get:

not having wentz on the team