Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan has had a slow start to the season to open the 2022 campaign, but head coach Frank Reich isn’t wavering on his support for the veteran.
Through five games, Ryan has completed 65.6% of his passes for 1,376 yards, five touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 79.8 passer rating. He also has 11 fumbles (three lost) on the season.
But after some review with the extra days off following the Thursday night game, Reich still feels comfortable with Ryan as the starting quarterback.
“My evaluation and my comfort with Matt as our starting quarterback is very high,” Reich told reporters Monday.
It’s far too early to be calling for a change at quarterback. Even with the struggles Ryan has endured, it’s not all on him. A good portion of it is. This isn’t meant to absolve him. But the offensive line has been atrocious to open the season, and it has led to him forcing plays where he shouldn’t.
But one area Ryan certainly has to clean up is the turnovers. He currently leads the NFL with seven interceptions (tied with Matthew Stafford) and 11 total fumbles. Reich was adamant about that part of his game needing to change.
“Obviously, the No.1 thing is the turnovers. We have to get that cleaned up. Some of those are on him, but they aren’t all on him. That’s the biggest thing,” Reich said.
Reich wouldn’t get into the details of how they want to address the issue, but he did admit they need to have a sense of urgency when it comes to holding onto the football.
“I’m not going to get into that kind of detail here, but obviously when you’re having that issue, at one point just like you said it’s the maturity to say, ‘I’ve got 14 years of film that says this is a fluke for him. But wait a second, it’s not a fluke to us because we feel the pain of those so we better get this thing fixed.’
“It’s that combination of I’ve got extreme confidence in Matt (Ryan), that we’re going to get this cleaned up. But on the other hand at the same time, I feel like we’ve got to have a sense of urgency. What little things can we do? What little things can we do? I know these aren’t all his fault, but what can we do to clean these up? We’ve talked about those with Matt and he’s making a conscious effort.”
Despite their rocky start, the Colts have a chance to make a run for the top spot in the division. But if that run is ever going to take place, Ryan has to do a better job holding onto the football.
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