Insider: Colts locker room 'shocked' by quarterback change from Matt Ryan to Sam Ehlinger

INDIANAPOLIS — The news that the Colts had benched starting quarterback Matt Ryan in favor of Sam Ehlinger first hit the team’s leadership council in a meeting with Indianapolis head coach Frank Reich, then the rest of the roster.

From the sounds of it, the reaction inside the locker room has been almost universal, a variation of the same word, over and over.

Shock.

“I feel like everybody’s got their opinions,” wide receiver Parris Campbell said. “I would say, probably, just shocked, but that’s the name of this business. You can’t second-guess it. You’ve got to trust the coaches, trust what’s going on around us, trust everything at the end of the day.”

For months, the Colts players have raved about Ryan’s leadership, the way he mentored younger players, the tone he set on the practice field.

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Ryan’s steely demeanor and calm in the fourth quarter had served as the catalyst for four comebacks already this season, and even though Indianapolis was struggling at 3-3-1, the team never faltered in its belief in the 37-year-old quarterback, the sixth starter in Frank Reich’s four-plus seasons as head coach.

As much as the offense had struggled under Ryan, whose nine interceptions and three fumbles lost had played as big a role in the team’s three losses as his fourth-quarter resolve played in the wins, the Colts felt like they hadn’t given Ryan enough help.

Reich himself struck the same tone in the press conference where he announced the change.

“Like everybody, it was just shocking at first,” linebacker Shaquille Leonard said. “We appreciate Matt. … It’s not on him. The games we won, the games we lost, they’re not on Matt Ryan.”

Leonard, Zaire Franklin and a few other teammates have said they talked to Ryan in the immediate aftermath, trying to let him know how much they appreciate him. Ryan, who is dealing with a Grade 2 shoulder separation, has been in the locker room and on the practice field this week, trying to help any way he can.

But the Colts have stopped short of explicitly questioning the organizational decision made by owner Jim Irsay, general manager Chris Ballard and Reich.

If anything, the players have acknowledged that those decisions are made at a different level than the one they occupy.

“Obviously, I was shocked like anybody else, hearing the news,” defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said. “But obviously, that’s a decision that’s above us, and as a team, we have to rally around whoever’s out there at the quarterback position. We have to respect the move, and we have to move forward as a team.”

Buckner, the former 49er who is in his third season in Indianapolis, has seen similar situations. When San Francisco drafted Buckner, the quarterback was Colin Kaepernick, and although the 49ers traded for Jimmy Garoppolo the next season, injuries to Garoppolo kept the quarterback door revolving the entire time he was there.

Indianapolis has been much of the same, although this is the first time the Colts have benched a quarterback midseason for performance, rather than making a move because of injury.

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“I’ve been dealing with quarterback inconsistency, or whatever it is, since I’ve been in the league,” Buckner said. “Honestly, it’s all about the team getting behind whoever’s at quarterback.”

The Colts have tried to rally behind Ehlinger this week.

In the same interviews where they’ve expressed their shock at the decision to pull Ryan, the players have unanimously expressed their support in Ehlinger and believe in the way the second-year quarterback has prepared himself over the past two seasons.

“I don’t want to discredit anybody, I think Sam’s a great quarterback,” Leonard said. “Seen his leadership role, seen the way he carries himself, we have so much confidence in him. He’s the first one in the building. When I come in, I do my workout and leave, he’s still in the weight room, he’s always asking questions.”

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s jarring to have six starting quarterbacks in five seasons, and a seventh, Brian Hoyer, who started two games in 2019 due to injuries to others.

“It hasn’t been like they’re bringing in just anybody,” wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. “They’ve all been great guys.”

The reality is that the Colts locker room doesn’t have time to think through everything that’s happened.

Indianapolis found out about the move on Monday. Preparation for Washington began almost immediately after that.

The Colts have games to play, and jobs to do.

“It did catch all of us off-guard, it wasn’t what we were expecting,” Pittman Jr. said. “But we ride with our team. We ride with whatever decisions are made, and we’re going to make the most of whatever happens.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis shocked by Colts QB change from Matt Ryan to Sam Ehlinger