Washington Football Team: Exploring every potential quarterback trade target

QB Matt Ryan, Falcons

Okay now, this is where the quarterbacks start to get a bit more exciting. Matt Ryan might only be a Band-Aid for Washington, but if he becomes available, he could be a big-time upgrade for their quarterback room.

Ryan was once an NFL MVP and led the Atlanta Falcons to a Super Bowl that they should’ve won. As everyone knows, they blew a 28-3 lead to the Patriots as Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan inexplicably stopped running the ball despite being ahead. That let the Patriots get back into the game and win it in overtime.

That debacle included, Ryan has generally been a very good quarterback. In 10 consecutive years, he has posted at least 4,000 passing yards. He has a career completion percentage of 65.4 percent, good for the ninth-best of all-time among qualified leaders.

Washington Commanders

Most importantly, Ryan has led the Falcons to six, 10-win seasons and six playoff appearances. So, he has the experience needed to take a team to the postseason and has won at least one game in each of his last three playoff appearances.

There are some valid concerns with Ryan. He’s turning 36 this offseason. He also has played with a plethora of receiving weapons like Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, and more throughout his career, so he might have trouble producing similar numbers with fewer weapons in Washington. Ryan also isn’t very mobile, so he wouldn’t add another dimension to the offense very often.

Then, there’s the matter of his massive contract. Ryan will have a $40.9 million cap hit this year, so if acquired, he would, essentially, be the only big move that Washington could make this offseason. He has cap hits of $41.7 million and $36.6 million the following two years, though there are outs in his contract that could help the team avoid paying that if his play falls off.

Ryan would surely be an upgrade for Washington, but those problems probably outweigh the benefits of him coming to Washington, especially depending on what it would cost to acquire him. It seems likely that Ryan would stay in Atlanta at least another year to help groom his successor anyway, as his contract is difficult to move.

Ryan should be on Washington’s radar, but it would take a perfect storm of events for the team to acquire him and still have a shot at being a Super Bowl contender. For that reason, they should focus on cashing in their assets for younger players, if they chose to do that.