The Indianapolis Colts agreed to a trade with the Atlanta Falcons to acquire veteran quarterback Matt Ryan on Monday.
The straight swap of a 2022 third-round pick (No. 82 overall) for Ryan gives the Colts their starting quarterback likely for the next two seasons. While this does put the Colts in somewhat of a bind with the salary cap, it’s nothing they can’t get out of with some restructured deals.
But with Ryan now coming to the Colts, they will be taking on a $24.7 million salary-cap hit, according to Over The Cap. They led the league in salary-cap space before the trade for Ryan.
Now, the Colts are looking at $15.8 million in cap space, which is the middle of the pack for the league.
With so many holes to fill at left tackle, wide receiver and tight end, that doesn’t seem like a lot of money. It’s not.
Fortunately for the Colts, they have a number of players who could restructure their deals to free up some salary-cap space. Candidates like DeForest Buckner, Darius Leonard and Kenny Moore could see their base salaries converted to a signing bonus.
That helps the Colts because they stretch the signing bonus out over the remainder of the contract. So while the player gets the money up front, the Colts save cap room in 2022 by essentially pushing money back.
With their quarterback now on the way to Indianapolis, the Colts have several moves to make and they’ll need to free up some salary-cap space to do so.
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