The Indianapolis Colts announced another switch at the quarterback position Wednesday, opting to bench Matt Ryan in favor of Nick Foles for the remaining three games of the 2022 season.
This is the second time Ryan has been benched this season and even though the move is unlikely to impact the Colts’ playoff chances, it’s just another storyline added to a disastrous campaign.
Here’s everything we know from the Colts’ latest quarterback change:
Why the switch was made
There are going to be reasons we may not know that were involved in the decision to go to Foles. But interim head coach Jeff Saturday did mention the lack of explosive plays with Ryan under center as part of the reason for making the switch.
“Just didn’t feel like we made enough plays offensively. It’s no secret, we haven’t converted in the red zone and ultimately, you’ve got to make plays in the NFL and we’re not making nearly enough explosive plays and not making plays in the red zone,” Saturday told the media Wednesday.
Nick Foles has yet to work with starting offense
While the Colts are hoping for a spark over the final three games of the regular season, there should be an expected adjustment period. This marks the first time that Foles has worked with the start offense all season since signing with the team back in May.
Matt Ryan injury guarantees
A big question the Colts will face this offseason revolves around Ryan, and part of that issues is due to the injury guarantees that are currently in his contract. For the 2023 season, Ryan’s contract includes $17.2 million in injury guarantees, which become official on the third day of the new league year. Ryan has stated he’s healthy despite dealing with a shoulder injury earlier in the season, but benching him gives the Colts a chance to save some extra money if/when they move on from Ryan this offseason.
Hoping for more vertical passing game
In making the switch, the Colts should be getting a stronger arm under center. Foles isn’t known for having a cannon like Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, but he does bring considerably more juice than Ryan or Sam Ehlinger. The hope is that he provide more of a downfield attack to allow rookie Alec Pierce and Michael Pittman Jr. to make some explosive plays.
“We’ve talked about it. At the end of the day, we have to get teams out of playing their safeties as seven yards. Everybody watches All-22. You can see it clear as day and at some point, you have to challenge people vertically,” Saturday said.
Why not Sam Ehlinger?
The Colts opted to go with Foles this time around rather than going back to the second-year passer in Ehlinger. It could have come down to the fact that we haven’t seen Foles yet in this offense and fans would be wondering why he would even be on the roster if he wouldn’t get a chance to prove himself.
But passing on Ehlinger again shows he’s not quite ready to take the reins. We got a glimpse in an extremely small sample size of two games this season, and there wasn’t much juice provided. Also, Saturday named Ehlinger the starter before even watching him practice and then immediately switched to Ryan being the starter in his first game.
There wasn’t a complete answer from Saturday as to why the Colts opted to go with Foles over Ehlinger but it would probably be something to the tune of “we think this gives us the best chance to win.”
