Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Acquire Matt Ryan

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

On today's episode, Locked On Colts' Evan Sidery and Locked On Falcons' Aaron Freeman join forces for a Locked On NFL Crossover Special recapping the huge Matt Ryan trade. Atlanta traded their franchise quarterback to Indianapolis for a third-round pick. How do both sides look after this deal was completed?Diving into the Ryan angle for both the Falcons and Colts, who won the deal? How will Ryan look within the Colts' offense? All of this, plus so much more, in a jam-packed crossover.Stay on the lookout for more Ryan reaction throughout this week on Locked On Colts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, guys, it is crossover Monday, where I am the host of Locked on Falcons. Aaron Freeman joined by the Locked on Colts host Evan Sidery. And today we are crossing over to talk about the big trade between the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts for quarterback Matt Ryan. So, guys, I want to thank everyone that makes Locked on Falcons their first listen, as well as Locked on Colts. Of course, both podcasts are free and available on a variety of podcast platforms, including Apple, Odyssey, Google, and Spotify. And, of course, you can check out Locked on Falcons on YouTube.

And I want to let you know that today's episode of this crossover special Locked on Falcons, Locked on Colts, is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit rockauto.com and tell them Lockdown sent you. So Evan, this is a pretty big day, but I'm sure you're probably used to it because the Colts seem to be always trading or acquiring a new quarterback

every single offseason. It's been a long time for at least Falcons fans in terms of having to make a change at the quarterback position. But give your expectation and your side of it from that perspective with the Colts. Yeah, so it all started really early Monday morning when we saw Ian Rappaport tweet out that the Falcons were feuding calls about Matt Ryan.

And pretty quickly, we just heard Colts, Colts all morning. And then eventually it eventually happened there with Jake Lazor mentioning that the Matt Ryan trade went down for a third round pick number 82 overall. And from the Colts side of things, Aaron, I think it's a home run. I mean, what they gave up for Carson Wentz, obviously a first round pick in this year's draft is tough to swallow, but the way that Chris Bowers kind of maneuvered out of the Carson Wentz fiasco, getting a third round pick from Washington, moving up to the third round, moved up in the second round in this year as well, got a future pick in next year's draft. So they pretty much swapped out Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan for free and it's an upgrade I mean

you know as well as anyone how good and underrated Matt Ryan can be I think within the Colts offense it's a home run fit from the Falcon side of things though Aaron I'm kind of it's kind of sad because it feels like this relationship kind of just fizzled out a little bit between Ryan and the Falcons over the last week yeah it's been it's been a roller coaster for a week for Falcons because they were all in on Deshaun Watson. It seemed like they were about to get him, and that sort of led to this divorce between Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons because it seemed like a week ago

before all this sort of Deshaun Watson stuff broke on, I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday night. I can't recall specifically. It's all been a blur. But it would seem like a week ago that Matt Ryan was going to be the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, and maybe they would draft a quarterback this year with an idea towards the succession and sort of figure it out in the future beyond that year. And then very quickly, things kind of derailed, and now you're

leading to Matt Ryan being gone, and you're trading him for a fraction of the price that you potentially thought I you know going into this trade I was like oh they'll get probably if they go to a team like the Colts which seemed to make the most sense they might be able to get the Colts second round pick this year and maybe a high pick next year uh and for them to basically settle for the lesser of the two Colts third round picks feels like a massive disappointment and you lose your franchise leader for basically you're just kind of throwing away for literal pennies on the dollar. So it's an all in all rough day for the Falcons because you're not only losing, you know, one of the top players that's ever played for this organization, a player that's brought stability to this

organization for 14 years, brought it out of there. But you're also not really getting any value back on it. And it just feels like the Falcons are kind of flailing in the wind right now as an organization. Yeah, it's really intriguing just how the Ryan trade happened. Number 82 overall, the Colts kept the Washington pick number 73 overall. We saw, like I mentioned earlier, Carson Wentz getting traded for more than that, Aaron. So why do you think the Falcons settled on the price for Matt Ryan? I feel like they could have gotten more like you mentioned. I thought it would have been the higher third round pick, at least from the Colts, or maybe they throw in a future third round pick

in next year's draft or something along those lines. But it's stunning to me just thinking about how Carson Wentz somehow has more value than Matt Ryan. Yeah, it's kind of bizarre. And I guess we'll probably find out more information on exactly how this thing went down and how it got negotiated in the coming days and whatnot. But one of the things I kind of opined over the weekend on Lockdown Falcons was, did the whole failure to get Deshaun Watson kind of ruin the Falcons ability to get leverage in a trade where basically a team like the Colts knew that, you know, there weren't that many teams out there that would be bidding against them.

And, you know, certainly if the Falcons were open to the idea of trading Matt Ryan, they'd probably ideally like to trade him to the AFC so he wouldn't be an obstacle in their own future to get to the playoffs and potentially the Super Bowl down the road, which seems very far away at this point in time. But I think the Colts kind of knew that they kind of had the Falcons by the shirt and curlies, as they say, and therefore could kind of lowball them in an offer because you knew that this was headed to a divorce and the Falcons had a ticking clock on Monday where they needed to, if they were going to move Matt Ryan, they needed to move him today because they had a roster bonus due tomorrow that would have made it virtually impossible to gain any sort of cap space by trading Matt Ryan by trading him now they do save about eight million dollars against the

salary cap but they are taking on a 40 million dollar dead money hit which has got to be the largest in NFL history I think the Eagles took on like 33 when they traded Wentz last year and I think you couple Matt Ryan along with Julio Jones and a couple other players. I believe the number is $62 million in dead money this year, where I'm pretty certain that is the biggest in NFL history. So the Falcons are basically going to take a massive loss this year to sort of reset their salary cap situation in the future. So that's a bright side, but you know, if, if you're, you know, offense to Marcus Mariota, but I don't know if he's the guy that you want to hit your wagons to, to rebuilding this thing in the future. One last point I had before we dive in, I wanted to get your thoughts really on the Falcons for the next few minutes before we dive

over to the Colts, close out the show, Aaron, but one last thing on the Matt Ryan train is the compensation structure. I wanted to hit on when you see Matt Ryan, as far as his tier quarterback nowadays, obviously the MVP in 2016, for Colts fans that are wondering about Matt Ryan and thinking, oh, this is Phillip Rivers all over again. He doesn't have an arm anymore. I've watched some Matt Ryan games today. I've watched some highlights from last year. He still definitely has some juice left in his arm area.

Just for those wondering out there that haven't watched a lot of Matt Ryan, what's your overall opinion of Matt Ryan as a quarterback and where he currently ranks in the tier of the NFL? Yeah, he's not really a guy that's going to sort of put a team on his back and go out there and win you games. But if you put talent around him, you know, he's he's basically, you know, it's a pejorative term in a lot of circles, but like he's the ultimate game manager, right? If you put talent around them, and I think the Colts really have that situation for him, like he can be that sort of ball distributor if you want to liken it to an

NBA point guard that, you know, if he has those, you know, shooters on the wings and the score in the low post, he can distribute the ball. He's the type of guy that can get you, you know, to use that basketball analogy, like 15 assists a night. And that's really what he is at this point in time. So when you look back at Matt Ryan, these last couple of years in Atlanta, you know, the biggest criticism I've had for him on his play on the football field has been mostly about his ability to deal with pressure. And that has been up and down at various points in the Falcons have dealt with some really bad offensive lines the last couple of years. This past year was the worst of the group,

and he actually was better this year handling pressure than he was in previous years and playing behind a Colts offensive line that I know didn't necessarily live up to these expectations a year ago but certainly has the reputation of being one of the best offensive lines in the league. I think that's a really great marriage for Matt Ryan and handing the ball off to Jonathan Taylor and not having to sort of

have to be the guy that makes the offense engine go. And given some of the weapons that the Colts do have, I think they have enough talent there to really maximize Matt Ryan's skill set. So I do feel like if Colts fans have a little bit of trepidation about Matt Ryan, like I wouldn't sit here and tell you that if he gets into a shootout with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, he's going to outdo all those guys. But I certainly think if the Colts can get into a situation where the rest of the team can keep a lid on some of these other top AFC quarterbacks, that if you need Matt Ryan to be able to make the throws necessary to win a football game, he's certainly capable of doing that. This is the time of year that I pretty much get

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Again, use promo code LOCKED15, LOCKKED15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. Let's go ahead and dive into the Atlanta angle, Aaron, because I'm just curious. I'll just give you the floor here mostly because 14 years Matt Ryan was at Atlanta was a living legend for the organization, probably the best quarterback of all time. You'll be covering all week on Locked on Falcons, I assume as well, Aaron. But what's your overall opinion seeing the official trade happen where Matt Ryan is no longer the Falcons quarterback after he's been there since 2008? Yeah, I mean, if this is something I've been talking about a lot on Falcons for over a year that, you know, it seemed like the end was near. We're getting closer to the end, but you you figured it would go out with a little bit more fanfare. It would go out with like, OK, this is clearly the plan and the path forward where it's like we draft Matt Ryan's heir apparent, you know, similar to kind of the situation you saw with the 49ers last year when they drafted Trey Lance and still all kind of just blow up now and just kind of fall apart is frustrating at this point in time.

But when you look at Matt Ryan's legacy, again, it's hard to put it in words because the Falcons just have not been a great organization for most of their 50 plus year history. And, you know, there was a long time, as Falcon fans call it, a curse where the team was unable to win, you know, have was a long time as Falcon fans call it a curse where the team was unable to win, you know, have winning seasons in back-to-back years. And that all changed in the first two years that Matt Ryan was in Atlanta. You know, they had existed since 1966 and that curse existed for over 40 years, as they say. And that broke with Matt Ryan in his first two seasons. And that's sort of kind of the legacy of Matt Ryan brings to the table where you just got consistency, you got steadiness, you got a guy that was, you know, the face of your franchise. You never had to worry about Matt Ryan saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing or anything like that. And now the Falcons are kind of thrown into turmoil now without him being that guy and without having a clear direction.

And so it's tough to sort of see what the path forward for this team is. But certainly, you know, it's nice to see Matt Ryan not have to, you know, mire in obscurity here in Atlanta and gets an opportunity to get back to the postseason with the Colts moving forward. You had great thoughts on this, Aaron, last week, just as you were covering the whole Deshaun Watson situation that kind of came out of nowhere where it seemed like Watson might be going to Atlanta and then last many pivots to the Browns. But what was your overall thinking of the handling from the Falcon side of things with the situation with Deshaun Watson, for those who haven't listened to your podcast yet, about that with the Matt Ryan angle where Matt Ryan never did anything wrong, but they kind of approached the Deshaun Watts situation,

shot their Hail Mary, and it kind of all blew up in their face there in the end. Yeah, it's, you know, we talk about Matt Ryan being sort of this unproblematic face of your franchise. And then, you know, looking at someone like Deshaun Watson, given sort of the off field situation he's dealing with, with 22 active civil suits against him for sexual misconduct, and sort of that guy potentially being the face of your franchise. And that feels like such a switch for this organization that really since the whole Michael Vick situation went down over 15 years ago, that they have sort of prided themselves on having high character guys so that they would never be embarrassed as they

were in the organization like they were 15 years ago when Michael Vick was in prison for dogfighting. So watching that whole situation go down, it was kind of bizarre to see the Falcons sort of essentially get into bed with Deshaun Watson. And it is understandable given the talent. I know Colts fans are well aware of the type of player that he is and the potential that he brings on the football field. But given this team circumstance over the last 15 years, you know, getting embedded with a player that had some of those off-field question marks made it, you know, head scratching to a certain extent. And then what that meant was it was very clear that the Falcons were, you know, out on Ryan, which, again, not a total surprise that the Falcons were looking to move on from Matt Ryan.

But you figured there was kind of going to be a plan in place in this whole, you know, Deshaun Watson's situation just kind of came out of nowhere, came out of left field and all got kind of rushed together. And it sort of left people like myself you know with our head swimming trying to figure out okay what's what's going on and then sort of you know that all sort of culminates in today's move uh so it's it's been a it's been a tough couple of days for the falcons it feels like you know they've gotten finessed a couple of times by other teams and other general managers yeah certainly an interesting time in atlanta and i wanted to ask about the direction of this team moving forward here, Aaron, because we already saw the domino fall after the Matt Ryan trade.

Marcus Mariota reunites with Arthur Smith on a two-year deal, presumably will be the bridge starter for the Falcons if they do indeed draft a quarterback this year. Do you think that's the plan moving forward? I mean, that's what I assume immediately after signing Mariota and getting rid of Ryan is that they like a guy in this year's draft, whether it be Malik Willis, Kenny Pickett, one of those guys. And I would assume that's direction they probably go. And what's your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, you know, their general manager was at Pitt's pro day on

Monday to watch Kenny Pickett. I'm sure he will be well traveled over the next couple of days as a number of these other top quarterbacks in this upcoming 2022 draft workout at their various pro days. Obviously, I think there's going to be a lot of connections between the Falcons and Malik Willis, who is an Atlanta native. And so it makes a lot of sense if they were looking for a marketable quarterback in Deshaun Watson that's local. Certainly, Malik Willis also checks those boxes and certainly doesn't have necessarily the off-field question marks that Deshaun Watson has.

So he even checks better boxes in that regard. So I think you're going to hear a lot of connections between those two two parties over the next you know what four or five weeks that we have between now in the draft uh so it seems likely that the falcons are going to take a quarterback the question is when is that at the eighth overall selection do they sort of like somebody else and wait until round two uh to see if that guy falls to them where they're now picking up 43 at the top of the second round or whatever the case may be. So that's going to be probably the thing that, you know, hangs over the rest of this off season is, you know, who's going to be the future quarterback or do they decide to punt on the position altogether and just wait till next

year in the 2023 draft where a lot of people think it is going to be a much better draft class and sort of, you know, potentially kind of pull what the Dolphins did a lot of people think it is going to be a much better draft class and sort of, you know, potentially kind of pull what the dolphins did a couple of years ago and tank, but not really tank, but you know, just kind of like we'll figure it out next year and we'll get our guy next year. So those are all going to be options on the table. And certainly we'll keep you covered on that in terms of lockdown Falcons. It's that time of year again,

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Absolutely. We'll go ahead now and dive over to the colt side of things aaron and at least my immediate reaction was it's a huge win for the colts getting matt ryan and getting him on board as an upgrade over carson wentz what was your opinion of matt ryan going to the colts as far as scheme fit goes frank rex offense i think he's a perfect fit in that offense he has jonathan taylor he has an offensive line i think they'll add more playmakers to that. Michael Pittman on the outside, probably get another one in the draft as well. What's your overall opinion of Matt Ryan going to India in the fifth there? Yeah, sort of opining on where Matt Ryan could go in the last couple of days on lockdown Falcons. It seemed like the Colts and maybe the Eagles would be the best opportunities for Matt Ryan because you would get a good offensive line in both of those places. You would have teams that were

more about running the football, teams that could play good defense and not have to force Matt Ryan to have to get into these shootouts where he has to drop back and throw the ball 40, 50 times in order for the team to win, which has been the case far too often for the Falcons these last couple of years. So I love the fit for Matt Ryan in Indianapolis. As I said, I feel like he can be the guy that can make that offense go much better than Carson Wentz did. Certainly, I think there's room for debate on Matt Ryan versus Philip Rivers. But certainly, I think Matt Ryan could come out ahead in that regard.

The only thing that I would warn Colts fans about that would give me a little bit of pause about having too high of expectations with Matt Ryan in the immediate future is, historically speaking, these last couple of years with a lot of different offensive coordinator changes, he tends to have an up and down first year with a new offense, and then everything clicks for him in year two. And that was one of the things that Falcon fans were optimistic about after sort of a rough first year under Arthur Smith that in year two with, you know, a more developed Kyle Pitts and maybe adding some other weapons around that maybe we could see Matt Ryan play at another high level.

So I wouldn't necessarily expect if I'm a Colts fan, Matt Ryan to hit the ground running based off of that recent history. But, you know, as you get more geared into things, I feel like he'll be a bright spot for that offense. Thinking just about Falcons teams in the past, Aaron, and thinking what the Colts have with Taylor, the offensive line, a top 10 defense. Is there any teams you can think back to for Matt Ryan where he's stepping into a similar situation? Like, is there a Falcons team from a couple years ago was the super bowl team or even maybe earlier or later than that where this is set up well for him to succeed yeah i think that super bowl team probably is the best example because they had a healthy running game um that's something that matt ryan really hasn't had throughout most of his career in atlanta outside

the couple first couple years with michael turner as Falcons running back. But then it wasn't as if their passing attack was as potent then. It was Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez, which was a very solid, you know, sort of one-two punch in that passing game. But obviously with the addition of Julio Jones later on, you know, you saw a little bit more of that explosive dynamic playmaker in that passing game. So I feel like that probably that 2016 Super Bowl team where it was helmed by you know running backs like davante freeman and tevin coleman you know neither one of those guys are as good as jonathan taylor but maybe combined they might give you sort of what jonathan taylor gave to that colts offense a year ago

uh and you know i i feel like uh with some of the weapons that the colts have um and probably you know i don't you would have to tell me, I know Jack Doyle retired. So, you know, probably getting a tight end probably helps because Matt Ryan's kind of always been better when he has that sort of reliable outlet in the passing game over the middle with a tight end like that. So I don't know if Mo Alley-Cox is back or whatever the case may be, but certainly I think that would be something that the Colts

may be interested in adding this offseason. Yeah, Molly Cox did re-sign on a three-year deal recently. And I think the draft is a very good idea as well because Chris Bowers mentioned they need a field-stretching tight end. This is a very good draft class for that on day two. So I would not be shocked at all if the Colts drafted a tight end.

But last few points here, Aaron, I appreciate the time for our crossover special today, Locked on Colts, Locked on Falcons. Go over this Matt Ryan trade. Julio Jones, just real quick, because I've seen a lot of Colts fans on Twitter asking about this idea. What's your opinion of Matt Ryan and Julio reuniting an Indian? I mean, I would love to see it.

You know, just as a fan, I know in terms of the viability of it, I have no idea. Yeah, I wouldn't even begin to opine on how likely it is to happen, but certainly I would love to see it. Yeah, I mean, I would love to see the Colts have a wide receiver need. I know Colts fans are saying just run it back now with Matt Ryan and Julio Jones from Atlanta to Indianapolis. But last point here, Aaron, appreciate the time as always. Just your overall opinion of this Matt Ryan trade. What's next for both sides? I think from the Colts side, they're going for the AFC South.

The Falcons seem like they're kind of looking towards 2023 and beyond. Kind of just seems like two teams going the opposite direction. So you're making this trade. Yeah. Yeah. I think you got to give kudos to Chris Ballard and company for turning a tough situation with the how the Colts season ended with Carson Wentz into a very positive thing with Matt Ryan moving forward and not really having to give up an arm and a leg like they did

a year ago to acquire Carson Wentz in that. So it seems like the Colts were able to really sort of rescue that situation the best that they could. And the Falcons seemingly in the opposite direction kind of bungled their situation to the best of their ability or the worst of their ability. So we'll just sort of have to see how the Falcons figure this thing out. But certainly I think, you know, they're clearly in a rebuild and we'll just sort of have to see if, you know, they can get this thing back on tracks sooner versus later. But sitting here today, I don't, I'm not filled with too much optimism that we're going to see this Falcon team, you know, in the post season in the near future.

Great stuff there, Aaron, really appreciate Colts fans listening. Go ahead and follow the locked on Falcons podcast. You can follow Aaron on Twitter as well at Falc fans for those Falcons fans listening. You follow me over on Twitter at locked on Colts. We give Colts insight. If you want to come on the bandwagon with Matt Ryan coming intocons fans listening, you can follow me over on Twitter at LockedOnColts. We give Colts insight. If you want to come on the bandwagon with Matt Ryan coming to the Colts, you can always come over there. So, Aaron, appreciate the time today, man.

It's a lot of fun, and definitely a huge domino that fell on Monday morning. Absolutely. Look forward to seeing Matt Ryan play at a high level in a blue and white uniform instead of red and black. Appreciate it.