5 QBs and whether or not the Browns should trade for them
By Chad Porto
Matt Ryan – Age and Contract
Matt Ryan is another guy that Cleveland would’ve loved right before the Hue Jackson era. Yet, he’s turning 37 in May. He hasn’t been elite in four years. He’s still putting up some nice numbers but inflated numbers. Yeah, the Falcons were 4th, 3red, and 5th in the league in passing yards in 2018, 2019, and 2020, but then they dropped to 16th in 2021. So while you may think Ryan isn’t far removed from his best years, that’s actually not true.
The Falcons threw the ball a lot over those four years and over-relied on Ryan, so his stats got inflated. The team finished 27th, 30th, 27th, 31st, in yards rushing over those years, practically putting all the pressure on Ryan. How did it go?
Not well, as the Falcons went just 25-65 over those four seasons. So clearly Ryan isn’t capable of leading a team to wins when he has a team built around his skillset. So now you’re expecting a 37-year-old, declining player, to come into Cleveland and change his entire gameplay style to fit Kevin Stefanski’s slow offense? Don’t feed me the whole “…he didn’t have a team around him” argument, because the same people who would say that about Ryan are saying that argument doesn’t fly for Mayfield. That Mayfield needs to “will” the team to victories.
If you need that type of a quarterback, the Tom Brady comeback type, then Ryan is out of the running for you as he’s not that kind of guy either.
Ryan is declining, and he’s not going to be a cheap decline either. He still has $92 million owed to him, and you better believe he’s going to look for something similar, regardless of his age. He’d be better off retiring at this point.