The Colts traded for Matt Ryan because they were looking to switch to more of a grownup at quarterback. Somebody who could avoid making the key mistakes. But that hasn’t happened.
Instead, they’ve gotten worse at the position than they were with Carson Wentz. They’ve had pass protection issues, and with Ryan being an older, immobile quarterback, he’s been unable to avoid being snowed under.
Through four games, Ryan has fumbled 9 times. Per the search tools at Stathead.com, that ties as the 3rd-most by any quarterback in the last 30 years.
There have been 22 quarterbacks who’ve fumbled at least 7 times in their first four games in the last 30 years. Of that group, about a third had another 8-plus fumbles left in them. At the top of the leaderboard, I see 2002 Daunte Culpepper (23 fumbles) and 1996 Tony Banks (21 fumbles).
Culpepper, oddly, finished with the best overall quarterbacking numbers in that 2002 season (though I suppose it might be different if docking him 2 points for each fumble).
Of those 22, 10 finished the season with top-15 quarterbacking numbers, but that speaks more to how many games they started rather than how effective they were. With cumulative stat rankings (particularly at QB and RB), guys who stay in the lineup tend to make the top 15.
In the table below, the number of fumbles in Weeks 1-4 appear next to the player’s name. His total fumbles for the year are also listed.
| 7-PLUS FUMBLES IN FIRST FOUR GAMES (last 30 years) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player (Fum) | St | Pass | TDP | Run | TDR | Fum | Pts | Rk |
| 1992 | Ran. Cunningham, Phil. (7) | 15 | 2775 | 19 | 549 | 5 | 13 | 299.7 | 3 |
| 1992 | Kelly Stouffer, Sea. (7) | 7 | 900 | 3 | 37 | 0 | 12 | 60.7 | 37 |
| 1993 | Jim Harbaugh, Chi. (7) | 15 | 2002 | 7 | 277 | 4 | 15 | 180.9 | 17 |
| 1996 | Tony Banks, St.L. (10) | 13 | 2544 | 15 | 212 | 0 | 21 | 210.4 | 15 |
| 1997 | Scott Mitchell, Det. (8) | 16 | 3484 | 19 | 83 | 1 | 15 | 266.5 | 9 |
| 1998 | Trent Green, Was. (7) | 14 | 3441 | 23 | 117 | 2 | 14 | 291.0 | 8 |
| 1998 | Jeff George, Oak. (7) | 7 | 1186 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 75.5 | 40 |
| 1999 | Brian Griese, Den. (8) | 13 | 3032 | 14 | 138 | 2 | 16 | 233.4 | 15 |
| 2000 | Cade McNown, Chi. (7) | 9 | 1646 | 8 | 326 | 3 | 8 | 164.9 | 26 |
| 2001 | Daunte Culpepper, Min. (7) | 11 | 2612 | 14 | 416 | 5 | 16 | 267.2 | 15 |
| 2002 | Daunte Culpepper, Min. (8) | 16 | 3853 | 18 | 609 | 10 | 23 | 387.6 | 1 |
| 2004 | Chad Hutchinson, Chi. (7) | 5 | 903 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 62.6 | 38 |
| 2005 | Chad Pennington, NYJ (8) | 3 | 530 | 2 | 27 | 0 | 8 | 37.2 | 50 |
| 2006 | Carson Palmer, Cin. (7) | 16 | 4035 | 28 | 37 | 0 | 15 | 317.5 | 6 |
| 2006 | David Carr, Hou. (8) | 16 | 2767 | 11 | 195 | 2 | 16 | 215.9 | 20 |
| 2006 | Kurt Warner, Ariz. (10) | 5 | 1377 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 93.2 | 38 |
| 2006 | Jay Cutler, Den. (7) | 5 | 1001 | 9 | 18 | 0 | 8 | 87.9 | 40 |
| 2007 | Josh McCown, Oak. (7) | 9 | 1151 | 10 | 143 | 0 | 11 | 113.9 | 31 |
| 2009 | Jason Campbell, Was. (7) | 16 | 3618 | 20 | 236 | 1 | 13 | 290.5 | 15 |
| 2009 | Josh Freeman, T.B. (7) | 9 | 1855 | 10 | 161 | 0 | 10 | 153.0 | 27 |
| 2011 | Michael Vick, Phil. (7) | 13 | 3303 | 18 | 589 | 1 | 10 | 302.1 | 12 |
| 2019 | Kyle Allen, Car. (6) | 12 | 3322 | 17 | 106 | 2 | 13 | 256.7 | 27 |
| 2022 | Matt Ryan, Ind. (9) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan