USA TODAY Sports
After 14 seasons with the Falcons, Matt Ryan will now try to win a Super Bowl as the Colts’ quarterback.
While Ryan did not publicly make his intentions known during Atlanta’s pursuit of Deshaun Watson, he revealed in his Tuesday press conference how he ended up deciding to come to Indianapolis.
Ryan noted that while he initially thought he might get forced into a trade, when the Falcons didn’t land Watson, he had a choice between staying in Atlanta or heading to the Colts. Then a Saturday meeting with G.M. Chris Ballard, head coach Frank Reich, offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, and passing game specialist/assistant QBs coach Parks Frazier sold him on the opportunity in Indianapolis.
“Their passion, their commitment, their professionalism, the accountability Chris has for himself and what he does, the empathy Frank has for my situation of understanding you’ve been in a certain spot and done it one way, and don’t ever forget that. It’s an incredible part of it, but this next chapter can be even better,” Ryan said. “It was a really, really cool meeting for me to take and I had to sit down with my family and say, ‘What makes the most sense for us?’
“I just knew with the roster that they talked about, the belief in the players that they have here, the belief in the way that they do things — the time was just right for me and I felt like I needed to do it. I was up in my house and I was in my office and I came downstairs and my wife was like, ‘You look different.’ I knew kind of at that point that was the direction we wanted to go. It took some time to really think it through and discuss it, and when we did we came to that conclusion.”
Ryan added that he knows plenty of people who are familiar with Reich and had always heard positive things about his new head coach.
“I had a teammate who was a coach of mine last year who was a teammate earlier in my career that worked with Frank in Philadelphia and just raved about him — one of the smartest, most levelheaded guys he’ll ever be around,” Ryan said. “That’s certainly the review I got from the people that I reached out to talk to about this and certainly the review you get from every player I talked to on this team. So, I’m excited about that. Got the chance to talk with coach earlier today and he was so nice to me and my family and so ready to get to work. So, I’m fired up about that.”
Ryan, who turns 37 in May, completed 67 percent of his passes for 3,968 yards with 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2021.
