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- Matt Ryan is now an Indianapolis Colt.
- Despite the fact that he is no longer with the Falcons, Atlanta is paying out a record amount of money.
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The NFL quarterback carousel has spun once again and Matt Ryan is on his way to Indianapolis. In the process, Atlanta is set to pay a lot of money for Ryan not to play for the Falcons.
By dealing their 15-year veteran quarterback to the Colts, the Falcons will not have to pay him a $7.5 million roster bonus. However, they will have his dead money on their salary cap this season and it is a record amount.
For Ryan not to play in Atlanta, the team will have to incur a dead cap hit of $40.525 million. That is the largest dead cap hit in NFL history by a significant margin.
Matt Ryan’s trade will incur a dead cap hit of $40.525M for the Falcons, the largest dead cap hit in NFL history by nearly $7M.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 21, 2022
Ryan’s dead cap hit is almost $7 million more than the $34 million that the Eagles had to incur after trading Carson Wentz to Indianapolis. Interestingly enough, both the largest and second largest dead cap hits in NFL history came after quarterbacks were traded to the Colts.
The Colts are still single-handedly causing more dead Cap than any team in history (and none of it is theirs). https://t.co/VlV0fspbSd
— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) March 21, 2022
In addition, the $40 million in dead money that will be activated in Atlanta will be about 20% of their total cap. That means that the Falcons will only have 80% of their total cap remaining even without Ryan.
That may not be that big of a deal for a franchise that has committed to something of a rebuild. Atlanta will not contend for a Super Bowl in 2022.
Nevertheless, that is a huge, NFL record amount of money to shell out for someone not to play for your team.