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The Indianapolis Colts brass has been gushing about quarterback Matt Ryan since the team acquired him in late March from the Atlanta Falcons. That hasn’t stopped since the start of training camp in July.
Ryan has been excellent at doing one thing in particularly early this training camp. That’s been pushing the offensive tempo.
In fact, Colts head coach Frank Reich says that the offense ran the same number of plays from previous training camp practices and yet two days in a row to begin 2022 camp, Indianapolis finished practice 10 minutes early.
“I mean it’s unbelievable,” Reich said. “We have never practiced that fast.”
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Ryan Pushing Offensive Tempo in Training Camp
The Colts weren’t known as a quick-moving offense last season. Indianapolis finished fourth in time of possession with 31:54 per game yet 21st in plays per contest with a little more 62 plays on average.
In summary, when the Colts possessed the ball last year, they ran a play about once every 31 seconds of game clock.
Ryan doesn’t necessarily have a reputation for running fast offenses, but with the Falcons last season, he led an offense that ran a play about once every 28.5 seconds of game clock.
It may not sound like much, but running every play on average 2.5 seconds faster over the course of a 17-game season is notably quicker. Making it more impressive, Ryan was in Arthur Smith’s scheme for the first time last year in Atlanta while Colts quarterback Carson Wentz returned to a system he was familiar with under Reich.
Running more plays in less time is one of many things Ryan could bring to the table for the Colts offense that the unit lacked last year. At the very least, he’s making a quicker tempo a priority in camp, and his offensive teammates are taking notice.
“Whenever he breaks a huddle, he’s hurry up, get to the line, get to the line,” left tackle Matt Pryor told reporters. “Obviously to have a dominant offense, you want the offense getting to the line quick cause then the defenses are like, ‘We’ve got to hurry up,’ and maybe that’ll throw them off a little bit. Yeah, he really turns up the field.”
Giving Ryan ‘The Toolbox’
Whether Ryan’s presence leads to a faster-paced Colts offense in 2022, Reich’s philosophy as a play caller will likely be different with Ryan. Reich admitted as much while speaking to the media about how he will use Ryan’s experience to the team’s advantage.
“As a play-caller you want to put the players in the best position,” Reich said. “But quarterback, he’s the field general out there so when you’ve got a guy with Matt’s (Ryan) experience, and you can kind of say, ‘Hey, here is what we want but trust your instincts. When you see it, call it. Don’t hesitate, don’t flinch. Do what you have done your whole career. Let us help give the toolbox that you can go to. Let’s talk about what toolbox we are going to go into when we want to make those calls.'”
Part of that toolbox appears to include a quicker tempo.
“It’s a mentality, it’s a confidence,” Reich said. “You know he came in talking about that and he told me at the start, he said, ‘I’m going to push the tempo,’ and I said ‘We’ll follow your lead. Go.’
“That is what we have done.”
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