Colts plan to have Matt Ryan play one quarter against the Buffalo Bills
While the Buffalo Bills haven’t decided yet how much their starters will play this preseason, including on Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts, their opponent this weekend has reportedly already announced how much their starting quarterback will play.
According to Zak Keefer with The Athletic, Colts’ head coach Frank Reich said that Matt Ryan is set to play a full quarter against the Buffalo Bills. This will be the third year in a row that the Buffalo Bills will play the Colts and the third time they will have a different starting quarterback.
In 2020, the Bills played the Colts in the AFC Wild Card round and the Colts had Philip Rivers under center. Last year, it was Carson Wentz in a regular season matchup but he was traded this offseason to the Washington Commanders. He was replaced by Matt Ryan, who the Colts traded with the Atlanta Falcons to acquire the former MVP.
Buffalo Bills should consider starting their young cornerbacks on Saturday
On Wednesday, defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said a decision hasn’t been made yet about how much, and who, among their young trio of cornerbacks (Dane Jackson, Kaiir Elam, and Christian Benford) will play in the first preseason game.
However, with the news that Ryan is going to play the first quarter this presents a great opportunity to test the rookies, Elam and Benford, and see how they look against a quarterback like Matt Ryan. The rookies have already been tested most of training camp having to go up against Josh Allen but playing in a preseason game is different than a practice setting.
The Buffalo Bills are probably still hoping that Tre’Davious White can be ready for the start of the season but if he is not then one of the two rookies is going to be forced to step into a key role against one of the best passing offenses from last year led by Matthew Stafford.
This is a great chance to see how Kaiir Elam and Christian Benford hold up against Matt Ryan when the results from the game don’t matter and it would be smart to have them out there early on Saturday.
