This will have Falcons fans divided, but it really shouldn’t. Matt Ryan is a polarizing player, for whatever reason. He’s been one of the most consistent quarterbacks in this league for over a decade, but part of the fanbase will have you believe he was Mitchell Trubisky and would happily trade him away for a bag of rocks. Well, Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon is one of those few people who believe the Falcons should trade Matt Ryan.
QB Matt Ryan to the Denver Broncos for QB Drew Lock and two first-round picks
I know the Atlanta Falcons almost certainly won’t trade Ryan at this point, and doing so doesn’t save them much money anyway, but it’s time to move on and start from scratch.
The Broncos are in a much better position to win right now based on their defense and offensive supporting cast, so they might lose patience with Lock and Teddy Bridgewater and bite on the 36-year-old Ryan.
Meanwhile, if that bite were to come, the Falcons would walk away with a huge increase in draft capital and a young, talented wild card at quarterback during the first stage of a rebuild that shouldn’t scare them. Rebuilds can take just a year or two in this day and age, and it’ll be a lot easier to turn this thing around when they’ve moved on from Ryan just as they did with Julio Jones.
Recent reports state the Broncos have committed to Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback, and inevitably, there are some in the media who will throw these outlandish scenarios into the ether. Essentially, this is a fantasy. Gagnon is correct that the Falcons would create cap space by trading Ryan ($2 million); he conveniently forgot to mention that trading him post-June 1 would leave $24.9 million in dead money this year and $40.5 million in 2022.
It makes no sense on either side. Denver’s future is Drew Lock, even if Bridgewater starts. Trading away one of your most valuable assets for a 36-year-old quarterback isn’t necessarily a smart decision. Even still, Lock hasn’t impressed me one bit, and I don’t think the Falcons would even take him with two first-round picks because they’d need to find another quarterback in the draft. It doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint for Atlanta, nor does it make sense from Denver’s personnel strategy point of view.
You must log in to post a comment.