Former NFL MVP Matt Ryan gave a startling revelation into what went wrong in his tenure in Indianapolis last year.
Ryan who was brought in to replace Carson Wentz, went 4-7-1 as a starter completing 67 percent of his passes for 3,057 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. Ryan was benched for the final three games of the season in favor of veteran quarterback Nick Foles.
On March 15, 2023, Ryan was released by the Colts and will serve as a CBS football analyst this fall but he made it clear that he hasn’t hung up the cleats yet.
Matt Ryan gives an honest critique of his Colts’ tenure
Let’s go back to after the Colts gave up a king’s ransom to acquire Carson Wentz from the Philadelphia Eagles. The belief was that former Colts Head Coach Frank Reich could fix Wentz because he was his old offensive coordinator when Wentz was on his way to an MVP season before tearing his ACL in 2017. Not only that, but Reich could help Wentz with his confidence as he looked like a shell of the guy who was drafted number two overall in 2016.
Long story short, neither happened the Colts missed the playoffs with Wentz taking the brunt of culpability from Colts owner Jim Irsay. Irsay demanded the Colts brass get rid of Wentz and acquire a veteran quarterback who won’t lose them games.
The Colts decided on Matt Ryan for a third-round pick in 2022. Ryan was coming off a season in which he went 7-10 for the Atlanta Falcons, completed 67 percent of his passes for 3,968 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions in 17 games started.
Indianapolis thought they had their guy, a competent veteran quarterback who wouldn’t take as many chances as Wentz and potentially lead them to the playoffs for the first time since 2020 with Phillip Rivers as the starting quarterback.
Those preseason expectations were immediately dashed as Ryan played like his age, the defense struggled in the absence of Shaquille Leonard, and Frank Reich was fired mid-way through the season.
However, Ryan isn’t fully to blame as the roster construction was flawed, and Jim Irsay being way too involved is the reason why the Colts held the fourth pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Ryan recently spoke with The Athletic about his tenure in Indianapolis.
“I mean it was a s-t show you know, it was a s-t show of 18 months basically is the best way to describe it. But I think everybody in our family handled it well and came out of stronger and in a really good spot.”
Unfortunately, the situation didn’t work out for Ryan in Indianapolis because while he was an older quarterback, that was a bad football team, and not even an all-time great quarterback could lift that team to win seven-eight games.
Matt Ryan built up a pretty solid career up to his tenure in Indianapolis, and hopefully, he can latch on to another team either this season or in 2024.
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