The Atlanta Falcons went against the grain when they hired Matt Ryan to be their new president of football in January. Arthur Blank created the position for him knowing full well he had no executive experience, yet they still wanted him to serve as the buffer between the front office and ownership.
Matty Ice has been all-in with the Falcons to the point that this hire looks like a great success, which has the rest of the NFL worried about how much he's embracing the new role and immersing himself in trying to learn the job as he goes--but this could open a can of worms across the league with teams hiring former players or franchise legends for executive posts.
Teams are already looking to emulate the approach Atlanta created, and that's starting with the Indianapolis Colts. On Monday morning, the Colts finally fired general manager Chris Ballard, and on an episode of The Dan Patrick Show, he revealed they're taking inspo from the Dirty Birds and a source told him their first call was to their own legendary quarterback in Peyton Manning.
"The Colts' first call will be to Peyton Manning," Patrick said. "The call will not only get names and suggestions, but the call will explore whether or not Peyton would be interested in being a general manager for the Colts as the entry point that would include ownership interest in the Colts."
If there is one franchise that loves legacy hires, it's the Colts. This is the same organization that hired Jeff Saturday as interim head coach in 2022 and brought an out-of-shape, 45-year-old Philip Rivers out of retirement when they QB help after Daniel Jones went down last season, so this is on-brand.
Peyton Manning might get the same treatment Matt Ryan did in Atlanta
This is going to be Indianapolis' first major hire following the passing of Jim Irsay, and it's one Carlie Irsay-Gordon is going to want to ensure she gets right. So seeing how things have transpired with a legendary quarterback with the Dirty Birds should be a good blueprint on how to proceed.
Whether they want Peyton as the GM on an interim basis or full-time remains to be seen, but another option for them is to take a more similar approach to Ryan: turn to your fan favorite to help him conduct the search for a new general manager and possibly a new franchise QB and head coach.
Here's the thing though: I'm not sure Peyton Manning would bite on a GM opportunity. For starters, ESPN is paying him and his brother a pretty penny for the ManningCast on Monday nights, and I don't think he'd be as willing to possibly tarnish his legendary status by becoming an executive.
And while using the GM post as a launch pad to venture into Colts ownership could be intriguing to him, a role like Matt Ryan has with the Falcons would be a better fit for his skillset. Just overseeing the new GM and helping the team find them so he could still have time for his other commitments.
You don't want a GM with no executive experience to lead you into your most important offseason in franchise history, so if the Colts want to successfully follow the Falcons model, it should be done by hiring Peyton Manning or even Stanford GM Andrew Luck for a similar role to Matt Ryan's, not as the general manager.
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