Matt Ryan made choice to leave Falcons and hopes to follow the Tom Brady or Matthew Stafford roadmap

The final week or so, Matt Ryan went from being on the identical roster he’d been on for 14 years and anticipating nothing to alter, then realizing one thing may change that he didn’t essentially need, then getting a option to make a change — and taking it.

That’s the way it was when Deshaun Watson was cleared of legal chargers by a grand jury final week, sending a handful of NFL groups scurrying to attempt to commerce for Watson.

A kind of groups was the Atlanta Falcons, a lot to Ryan’s shock. And that’s when his tight rope act to resolve his future started.

“I’ve by no means been by a transaction or a roster transfer, which is commonplace and day-to-day for almost all of the locker room,” Ryan mentioned Tuesday as he was launched because the Indianapolis Colts’ new quarterback. “So it was a special week, it was a special expertise.

“I’m not naïve. I perceive how this enterprise works and that there’s going to be motion. From the time it began final week till we sit right here at present, I believed everybody dealt with issues professionally. I didn’t like the whole lot I heard, however you don’t all the time like what you hear typically. However they have been skilled and dealt with it very well.”

The Falcons totally meant to commerce Ryan as soon as they started their Watson chase. However, surprisingly, they provided to maintain Ryan or assist him go to a crew he most well-liked as soon as they have been eradicated from Watson competition.

It was Ryan’s selection.

“In the end, it got here right down to a choice between both staying in Atlanta or coming right here to Indianapolis,” Ryan mentioned.

So he acquired on a Zoom assembly with Indianapolis coach Frank Reich, basic supervisor Chris Ballard and others, and was bought on the Colts as a corporation and in regards to the lineup they placed on the sector.

“It was a very, actually cool assembly for me to take. And I needed to sit down with my household and say, ‘What makes probably the most sense for us?’” Ryan mentioned. “I simply knew with the roster that they talked about, the assumption within the gamers that they’ve right here, the assumption in the way in which that they do issues – the time was excellent for me, and I felt like I wanted to do it.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan speaks throughout a information convention on the NFL crew’s observe facility in Indianapolis, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Michael Conroy)

“I used to be up in my home and I used to be in my workplace and I got here downstairs, and my spouse was like, ‘You look completely different.’ I knew type of at that time that was the path we wished to go. It took a while to actually suppose it by and talk about it, and after we did, we got here to that conclusion.”

It needs to be famous that the quarterback who gained the previous two Tremendous Bowls left his crew after greater than a decade. Ryan is conscious.

He competed towards Tom Brady as soon as he arrived in Tampa Bay. And he’s shut mates with Matthew Stafford. So there’s a highway map Ryan can observe.

“The roadmap appears to be like actually good,” Ryan mentioned. “What Matthew Stafford did in LA final 12 months, making that transition, enjoying so nicely. And what Tom did, I noticed that firsthand within the division the 12 months earlier than. Hopefully, we bottle up a few of that momentum and we will make a push right here.

“I actually consider we will. I feel this roster is constructed very well. They’re sound throughout the board, constructed with actually excessive character soccer gamers, guys who work exhausting. It’s wonderful to me in sending a bunch of texts and speaking to some guys yesterday, simply backwards and forwards, how a lot they care about successful.

“In each one among their first textual content messages, it was about successful. That’s distinctive. It truly is. That fires me up. I hope we will, like I mentioned, experience that pattern that’s been occurring and make it work for us.”

The Colts removed incumbent beginning quarterback Carson Wentz with out actually having a plan for buying Ryan. For them, it wasn’t a lot who the subsequent man could be, however maybe extra that the final man wasn’t it.

That Wentz wasn’t the chief the group wished.

He held himself accountable at instances. However not a lot at others, in keeping with a supply.

So Wentz was gone nicely earlier than Ryan was on the radar. However as soon as Ryan did certainly turn into a risk, there was little query Ballard and Reich wished him as a result of, sure, he’s been an excellent quarterback. However he’s been an excellent chief and accountable in Atlanta.

FILE – Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) warms up earlier than an NFL soccer recreation towards the New Orleans Saints, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, in Atlanta.  The Indianapolis Colts acquired quarterback Matt Ryan in a commerce Monday, March 21, 2022, with the Atlanta Falcons, The Related Press has realized.
(AP Photograph/Danny Karnik, File)

“To me, management is about serving your teammates,” Ryan mentioned. “The one factor I’ve realized in 14 years is what sure guys want from you is completely different. What every crew that you just’re on wants from you as a participant and a pacesetter is completely different. You need to get to know your guys, it’s a must to get to know your teammates very well and the way they tick and the way they must be motivated and what are the issues that you could assist them with to convey out the most effective in themselves.

“That’s going to be a very thrilling problem for me, is to try to get to know this group of men on this locker room, this teaching employees as finest I can and work out how I work in that and work out the issues I can convey into it. I’ve all the time believed it’s worthwhile to be versatile in your management. It is advisable type of learn the room, for lack of a greater time period, however you higher be principled.

“There should be issues which might be non-negotiable that you just consider in, the way you do issues, how you’re employed that come by and present by to different folks. I’ve positively been versatile all through my profession, and I’m definitely at a special level now than I used to be at 23, 24 with the expertise that I’ve.”