Al Breer of Sports Illustrated had a good write-up about the situation - comments about Matt Ryan from rival GMs, the trade compensation that SF and Cleveland were asking for Jimmy G and Baker, etc. I have excerpted several parts from the article linked below:
https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/03/21/ma...-asking-prices
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You heard over and over last year that the Colts didn’t need, or want, Carson Wentz to be superman—and yet, there they were at the end of the season, still begging him to take the layups that were there for him in Frank Reich’s offense.
Matt Ryan, it’s fair to assume, won’t have that problem. The Falcons traded Ryan to Indy on Monday for the second of their third-round picks (Indianapolis keeps the 73rd pick, which they got from Washington for Wentz), and in the wash the Colts got a quarterback who is, more or less, exactly what they need: a point guard who will maximize the other guys that GM Chris Ballard and coach Frank Reich are going to put on the floor with him.
Last year’s trade for Wentz was a gamble that Reich’s old protégé could harness his ability and propensity to play heroball, and play effectively for Indy. Conversely, there’s very little projection on Ryan. He should be able to get the ball out, and to the Michael Pittmans and Jonathan Taylors and Mo Alie-Coxes that the Colts bring to the table.
That doesn’t mean Ryan is still the guy he was in 2016. The key, though, is that the Colts won’t ask him to be.
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“Really smart, still accurate to the short and intermediate levels,” says an NFC exec who has studied Ryan and gone against him regularly. “You have to protect him, he can’t move at all. His ability to throw the long ball was always about average and it’s in decline now—he can do it better than Drew Brees at the end, but it’s similar to that. … But he can get them in good plays, hand the ball to Taylor, and be efficient and accurate when he throws.
“He’s still good. … [the Falcons] just didn’t have enough around him anymore.”
And the Falcons still looked at him favorably—as a quarterback who could navigate traffic, with the toughness to take hits, play through injury, and throw effectively from different arm angles with chaos around him.
The good news for Ryan is he’ll have more help in Indy, and plenty of motivation to show people, at 38, what he’s got left. And if you’re Ballard and Reich, he’s different than Wentz or Philip Rivers or Jacoby Brissett—with a good shot to be, say, a three-year bridge to whomever the long-term answer at quarterback is. That is especially valuable this year, with Indy being without a first-round pick, and the draft’s quarterback class being so mediocre.
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“Matt Ryan was my first draft pick when I started out in Atlanta,” Dimitroff texted on Monday. “His unique intelligence and leadership ability made him the star of our new era. Matt has experienced exponential growth as a leader on and off the field and demonstrates commitment, competitiveness, durability, toughness and skills for the game unlike any other. I’m excited to see his passion and firepower impact the AFC and wish him the best of luck in Indianapolis.”
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Now, to be sure, the Colts dug themselves this hole with the swing-and-miss—and it was a big miss—on Wentz. But give Ballard credit, he got out in front of the quarterback market and moved his embattled starter, and his contract, off the roster, and got a better return than most believed he could. And now? Well, if you add up the picks that went back-and-forth between the Colts, and the Eagles, Commanders and Falcons, here’s how all three net out.
Colts get: 2022 second-round pick (42nd overall), 2022 third-round round pick (73rd overall), 2023 second-/third-round pick.
Colts give: 2021 third-round pick (84th overall), 2022 first-round pick (16th overall), 2022 second-round pick (47th overall), 2022 seventh-round pick (237th overall).
So if we assume Wentz is the Commanders’ starter, then the Colts gave up a 1, a 2, a 3 and a 7 for two 2s and a 3, and the 2s and 3s they got are higher than the ones they gave. And for that swap where three Top 100 picks went out and another three came in, they got that one-year swing with Wentz, and then Ryan to replace him.
Ideally, you don’t make the trade for Wentz in the first place. But from an asset management standpoint, Ballard did pretty well here.
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The Niners’ asking price for Jimmy Garoppolo has been steady for some time (other teams have said for a couple weeks that it’s about two second-round picks), and the Browns came in high over the weekend, with teams hearing they wanted a first-round pick for Baker Mayfield in the aftermath of the Deshaun Watson.
I’m pretty sure Cleveland’s going to have to adjust its price, and San Francisco might have to, too. In the end, you need suitors. Indy is gone now. The Saints are too, based on what they’re giving Jameis Winston, and already have Taysom Hill on the books. And Atlanta seems less-than-likely to want either Garoppolo or Mayfield. Which leaves … who? The Panthers? The Seahawks (hard to envision the Niners dealing their guy in-division)? Yeah, it’s hard to see where a bounty is going to come from at this point.
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Last edited by AlwaysSunnyinIndy; 03-22-2022 at 12:46 PM.
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03-22-2022, 12:00 PM
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