The NFL’s regular season is often a wild ride. Pegged by many NFL and fantasy football experts to be lifting the Lombardi Trophy this upcoming February at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., this season has been a complete and total disaster for the Indianapolis Colts.
The reports of head coach Chuck Pagano’s disdain for GM Ryan Grigson have been many, but even worse the Colts have struggled to find quality play at the quarterback position—even with Andrew Luck. Now Luck finds himself sidelined with a lacerated kidney and torn abdominal muscle, and only time will tell how long Luck will be out of the Colts’ starting lineup.
As the old adage goes, “What’s one man’s loss is another man’s gain.” Needless to say, during this Sunday’s Week 11 matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons, Matt Ryan is looking to position himself on the positive side of the Colts’ woes. After taking a look at the numbers, he’s likely to find some real success.
For starters, Ryan is coming off a bye week. Historically speaking, throughout the course of his career, Ryan has always managed to play at a high level after a week of rest. As reported by Jamey Eisenberg of CBSSports.com, “In his past four seasons coming off a bye, Ryan has cores at least 27 fantasy points in three games. It would be great to see him score at least 27 fantasy points because his high for the season is 26 points, and he’s scored 20 fantasy points just four times this year.”
Furthermore, the Colts don’t have the most impressive pass defense in the league. In fact, Indy has allowed five quarterbacks to score at least 20 points against them—all in the past seven games.
Ryan hasn’t produced any jaw-dropping performances this season, but he appears poised to go big against the downtrodden Colts. If you own Matt Ryan, you're starting him and feeling really good about it this week.