The Indianapolis Colts hope they have found the quarterback that can help them contend in the AFC, after striking a deal with the Atlanta Falcons for Matt Ryan.

According to multiple reports, the Colts will send a third-round pick to the Falcons in exchange for the 2016 MVP.

It comes after the Colts parted with Carson Wentz, whom they acquired last year, after just one season, trading him to the Washington Commanders in a deal that saw the two franchises swap second-round picks and Indianapolis acquire a pair of third-rounders.

The Colts are viewed by many as having a roster ready to challenge for a deep playoff run, yet their inability to find an answer at quarterback following Andrew Luck's shock retirement in 2019 has prevented Indianapolis from reaching such heights.

Philip Rivers helped them to the playoffs in the 2020 season but retired after one year with Indianapolis. It was hoped Wentz's past relationship with Colts head coach Frank Reich would revitalise his career, yet a dismal end to the 2021 campaign in which they missed the playoffs after a blowout loss to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 18 helped convince Indianapolis to move on swiftly.

Ryan appears to have a much better chance of proving to be the solution for the Colts. Though Atlanta missed the playoffs last year with a 7-10 record, Ryan completed 67 per cent of his passes, his highest completion rate since 2018, for 3,968 yards and 20 touchdowns. He did, however, throw 12 interceptions.

He remains a very accurate quarterback, delivering a well-thrown ball on 80.7 per cent of his throws in 2021, according to Stats Perform data, tied for the sixth-best rate among QBs with at least 200 attempts.

No player in the NFL has thrown for more passing yards than Ryan's 59,735 since he entered the NFL as a first-round pick of the Falcons in 2008.

Prior to 2021, Ryan threw for 4,000 yards in 10 consecutive seasons, the high point coming in 2016 when he led the Falcons to the Super Bowl.

He threw for a career-high 4,944 receiving yards, averaging 9.3 yards per attempt, 38 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.

However, that season ended in bitter defeat as the Falcons gave up a 28-3 lead in their Super Bowl LI loss to the New England Patriots. The Falcons have won just one playoff game since.

Given his achievements, a third-round pick seems like scant compensation for the 36-year-old, with the Falcons agreeing to a trade that will see them incur the largest dead cap hit in NFL history ($40.52million).

The Falcons, who decided against taking a quarterback with the fourth overall pick in last year's draft, are believed to be interested in signing former second overall pick Marcus Mariota as an immediate replacement for Ryan. Malik Willis, one of the top quarterbacks in the 2022 class, was born in Atlanta and could be a developmental option for the Falcons with the eighth pick in this year's draft.

Atlanta had been interested in Deshaun Watson even before dealing Ryan, but he instead joined the Cleveland Browns in a trade with the Houston Texans.

Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant has said Kyrie Irving is "frustrated" at still not being allowed to play home games for the team.

New York City mayor Eric Adams recently removed restrictions requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter establishments including bars, restaurants and sports arenas, but the mandate for private sector employees remains in place.

As a result, Irving – who is unvaccinated – is only able to attend home games as a spectator, which he recently did when the Nets beat the New York Knicks at Barclays Center.

After Monday's shootaround, Durant said Irving thought restrictions on him would have been lifted by now, stating: "He's frustrated in not being able to play.

"He figured this stuff would be rolled back by now, we'd be way past this. But it's the situation we're in, we've got to deal with it, he's got to deal with it. We're trusting that it'll get figured out there soon.

"I have no clue what may happen, but I'm just trusting that things will work itself out. But I'm sure he misses playing in front of a home crowd and the home crowd; vice versa, they miss him. So, hopefully we get it figured out soon."

Irving has played 19 games for the Nets this season, all on the road, averaging 27.7 points per game, and recently hit 60 in his team's win at the Orlando Magic.

Mayor Adams said at the time that allowing Irving to play home games "would send the wrong message" to the people of New York, despite wanting to see the Nets win an NBA championship.

Durant – who returned from a knee injury at the start of March and is averaging 29.4 points this season – added there is no judgement of Irving from him or his team-mates.

"We love Kyrie as a human being," he said. "I don't think we were ever upset at him as much as people on the outside were. We get that it may affect the outcome of some basketball games, but that's not the only reason why we love Kyrie as a person, because of what he can bring to the court.

"He made the decision [not to be vaccinated] for himself, so you've just got to respect it and move forward. We weren't coming in here every day p***ed off at him because he wasn't around."

When asked if being without Irving would have an impact on their championship aims, Durant said: "We'd be missing a huge piece of our team, but we've still got to go out there and play the game.

"We've been saying that no matter who's on the floor, you've still got to go out there and play and hoop. We'd love to have Kyrie out there, being out there, but if they aren't, the rest of the guys have just got to go play and live with the results. I think we're all comfortable with that."

JuJu Smith-Schuster has confirmed the prospect of playing with Patrick Mahomes was a key factor in his decision to join the Kansas City Chiefs.

The one-time Pro Bowler had spent his entire NFL career to date with the Pittsburgh Steelers but announced his departure on Friday.

On social media, Mahomes soon welcomed the arrival in Kansas City of a wide receiver with 323 catches for 3,855 receiving yards and 26 receiving touchdowns across 63 games in five seasons.

After Smith-Schuster secured a one-year, $10.75million deal, Mahomes sent him a Twitter message, which read: "Turn me up brotha!!!"

His new Chiefs team-mate replied: "Can't wait to get after it my boy!"

But that was not their first conversation around the move, as Smith-Schuster revealed when facing the media as a Chief for the first time.

"I had talked to a couple of guys, obviously, to make this happen. I talked to Pat a couple of times. I'd talked to Pat multiple times before even all this. I've known Pat for a while now, so, yeah, of course.

"You go into free agency, and you find out who's going to be throwing you the ball next year. It came down to Pat, and I'm excited. I'm happy with my decision."

Taken in the second round in the 2017 NFL Draft, Smith-Schuster was an instant hit with seven receiving TDs in each of his first two seasons, including a pair of 97-yard scores – becoming the first player in NFL history to have multiple offensive TDs of that distance or more.

There were 1,426 receiving yards in 2018, before a step back in 2019 was followed by a career-high nine receiving TDs in 2020.

Limited to five games by a shoulder injury while the Steelers toiled on offense with the retiring Ben Roethlisberger still at quarterback, Smith-Schuster's only score last season was his first career rushing TD.

The 25-year-old is confident the Chiefs are a good fit for him, though.

 "I just thought that this opportunity fit more for me in the sense of coming here, playing for Andy [Reid] and obviously the OC [Eric Bieniemy], Joe [Bleymaier] and everyone else," he said.

"I've seen an opportunity that I can take on and where I can improve my skills and see what I can do.

"I'm a physical guy coming in here to showcase those talents. That's what I bring with myself, in the package.

"I'm here to work. We have a great team, there are some great guys, and this is why I came to be a part of this. I came here to win."

The Rugby Football Union's (RFU) claim England made progress during a tough Six Nations campaign has been criticised by ex-international Ugo Monye, who called their statement "dishonest".

Eddie Jones' side finished a distant third behind Ireland and Grand Slam winners France, managing just two wins from their five games.

It marked a second successive dismal Six Nations, far removed from reaching the final of the 2019 World Cup that marked the high point of the Australian's tenure in charge.

Now, a year-and-a-half out from the 2023 World Cup in France, the RFU has sought to frame their results as stepping stones, but Monye – a 14-time England international – believes such claims are untruthful.

"I want to know who in the RFU thinks that signifies progress and are happy with how things are," Monye told BBC Sport's Rugby Union Daily podcast.

"Fundamentally it's just dishonest. There isn't progress. With the financial backing, the player pool and the coaching staff they have you cannot be winning two out of five games two years in a row.

Lewis Hamilton admitted he does not think Mercedes will be more competitive at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but believes his podium finish in Bahrain has still boosted spirits.

Mercedes struggled with their new W13 car through much of the weekend at Sakhir, but came away with a surprise third-place finish after both Red Bulls failed in the final laps, allowing Hamilton – who had qualified fifth – to capitalise.

While Hamilton has already stated their result was "the best result we could have got" in the circumstances, the seven-time world champion doubts they will be up to the pace in Jeddah.

"No, I don't think so," he said in a news conference. "Of course we've learned a lot from this week. The car was very hard to drive but it could always be worse.

"I’m hoping for the next race we manage to find some improvements but it's a fundamental issue that's going to take a little bit longer I think to fix."

Mercedes previously considered their objective in Bahrain to be damage limitation given their disadvantage, but Hamilton agreed they had been lifted by their unexpected reward.

"I think [it is] incredibly motivating for the whole team," he added. "Everyone’s stayed positive, everyone's just kept their head down and kept working. No one moaned.

"In terms of our processes, in terms of squeezing absolutely everything out of the car, I think that's what we did today. I think that's a true showing of strength within.

"It is such a long season. It's going to be such a hard battle but we love a challenge. I really do enjoy a challenge."

Hamilton would have missed third without the double retirement that hit both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, but the seven-time world champion refused to consider it karma for last year's Abu Dhabi final.

"I don't have a response to it," he added. "I just focused on our job. Obviously it was unfortunate for them today but, yeah, I just focus on positives."

Charles Leclerc and Carlos claimed a Ferrari one-two to emerge as the early pacesetters of the season.

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve was surprised about long-time team-mate Carlos Correa's move to the Minnesota Twins.

The pair, who won the 2017 World Series together and were part of the Astros' side that lost last year's edition 4-2 to the Atlanta Braves, will be split up after Correa inked a bumper deal with the Twins.

Correa was declared a free agent for the first time in his career in November and rejected a qualifying offer from the Astros, before the Twins won the race to land him amid interest from several top teams.

Despite that interest and two-time All-Star Correa arguably being the most coveted free agent left on the market, the 27-year-old ended up with the Twins, who finished last in the American League (AL) Central last season with a 73-89 record.

"I was surprised. I wasn't expecting that," Altuve said. "Obviously we're going to miss him. He's a great player and a great guy inside the clubhouse. He was one of our leaders."

Altuve, who played alongside Correa since 2015, added: "Now that he's on another team, I'm happy for him. He got a great deal. Happy for him. I know he's going to play good. He's going to make the Twins better."

Shortstop Correa has reportedly signed with the Twins on a three-year, $105.3million deal, making him the MLB's highest paid infielder on average annual salary.

Correa is a career .277 hitter with 133 home runs, batting at .279 with 26 home runs and 92 RBIs last season, along with claiming his first Gold Glove. Puerto Rico-born Correa finished fifth in AL MVP voting last season.

Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has slammed his side claiming that they "gave in and quit" in Sunday's 124-104 loss to the Boston Celtics.

The Nuggets trailed 68-43 at half-time after a 46-21 run to the Celtics, leading to Malone benching several starters for the third quarter, including MVP Nikola Jokic who shot eight-of-23 from the field for his 23 points.

Malone was livid with his side, who slipped to a 42-30 record and seventh spot in the Western Conference.

"To me, it appeared we just kind of gave in and quit. I didn't want to reward that behaviour," Malone told reporters after the game.

"I thought the bench unit was at least going out there and competing and fighting."

Malone added: "If somebody’s kicking our ass and we’re fighting and competing, and they’re better than us, so be it,"

"They’re a very good team, but if we’re getting our butts kicked, and we’re just taking it, possession after possession, heads are dropped, body language giving in, I’m not going to reward that behaviour.

"There’s principles in life, and that goes against every principle inside my body."

Jokic was well down on his usual output with eight rebounds and four assists along with his 23 points, while starters Aaron Gordon (13 points, four rebounds), Monte Morris (seven points, four rebounds and four assists), Will Barton (eight points and five rebounds) and Jeff Green (six points and one rebound) struggled for impact.

"Tonight I can't point to one thing we did well," Malone said.

Jokic added: "Overall, they had a really good defensive game and I had a really bad offensive game."

Jayson Tatum, who was serenaded with "MVP" chants from the Celtics crowd, was joint top scorer with 30 points along with Jaylen Brown.

Boston's win improves their record to 44-28 and fourth in the east, having won three in a row and 10 of their past 12 games.

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said his team needs to appreciate a decreased margin for error with Stephen Curry injured, after their 110-108 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

Curry is in a race to return to the court before the playoffs begin in April, and the Warriors felt his absence, getting out-shot from long range by the 28-44 Spurs, currently 11th in the Western Conference.

The Warriors have been undermanned all season with their big-man stocks as James Wiseman, the second pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, is yet to make his season debut.

Coach Kerr stressed this point, and pointed out that he did not feel like his team brought the requisite intensity before it was too late.

"We have to understand – and I told the guys this at half-time and after the game – that we're undermanned," he said.

"There's 11 games left now, and we're looking at the playoffs, and there's gotta be a sense of urgency. 

"There's gotta be a sense of competitive fight that we take to the other team from the very beginning of the game, and I did not see that until we were really late in the game.

"We were great in that fourth quarter, fighting like crazy, but we need to fight like crazy from the start."

Formula One managing director Ross Brawn is tentatively satisfied by the racing impact of new regulations, following the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

Following an era dominated by the Mercedes team, significant regulation changes have been made for the 2022 season, to allow for closer racing.

Brawn, who was tasked with implementing the regulation changes by Formula One, praised the "raceability" of the current cars in comparison to previous years.

"We're delighted," Brawn told Sky Sports F1 post-race. "It is the first race so we have to be careful but all the signs are that we have moved in the direction that we wanted to move in, and the ability of the cars to race each other has improved.

"In the past we have always focused on car safety and performance. Now we should focus on raceability. That should be in there as well, because there's never been any attention paid to it."

Some of the biggest regulation changes for 2022 relate to aerodynamic output and cleaning up the turbulent wake that quickly overheated following cars in recent past, affecting the potential of wheel-to-wheel racing, despite the optimal increase in performance.

Though lap times during winter testing reflect slower overall performance, Charles Leclerc's win at Sakhir on Sunday didn't come until after a closely fought battle with reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

Brawn believes Formula One is on the path to finding balance.

"We could see from previous cars, you could simply see the downforce or the aerodynamic performance of the car that was following degrading hugely when it was behind another car," he said.

"We (Formula One) can't see the data because we're the commercial rights holder, but the FIA will now look at all the data of the cars and from that, put that into the research program to see how we can improve it further.

"I think anecdotally, you could see the cars can race a lot better."

The ascending Boston Celtics added another scalp to their resume, holding reigning MVP Nikola Jokic to his season-worst shooting percentage in a 124-104 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

In a stunning year-on-year improvement, the Celtics have been the best defence in the NBA this season after finishing 17th in that department this past season.

With new coach Ime Udoka going all-in on a switching defensive system, it was theoretically going to be tested against the best passing big man in league history, and arguably the league's most dominant offensive force.

However, Jokic was bottled up similarly to everyone else the Celtics have played in 2022, going 8-of-23 (34.7 per cent) from the field in the blowout loss.

Jokic, who is shooting 57 per cent from the field for the season, had previously had his worst shooting performance when he went 6-of-17 (35.3 per cent) in an early-December loss against the Chicago Bulls.

Boston's two superstar wings combined for 60 points, as Jayson Tatum posted 30 points (11-of-17 shooting, 6-of-10 from three) with seven assists, while Jaylen Brown had 30 points (12-of-19 shooting, 3-of-6 from three) with six rebounds.

The ascending Boston Celtics added another scalp to their resume, holding reigning MVP Nikola Jokic to his season-worst shooting percentage in a 124-104 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

In a stunning year-on-year improvement, the Celtics have been the best defence in the NBA this season after finishing 17th in that department this past season.

With new coach Ime Udoka going all-in on a switching defensive system, it was theoretically going to be tested against the best passing big man in league history, and arguably the league's most dominant offensive force.

However, Jokic was bottled up similarly to everyone else the Celtics have played in 2022, going 8-of-23 (34.7 per cent) from the field in the blowout loss.

Jokic, who is shooting 57 per cent from the field for the season, had previously had his worst shooting performance when he went 6-of-17 (35.3 per cent) in an early-December loss against the Chicago Bulls.

Boston's two superstar wings combined for 60 points, as Jayson Tatum posted 30 points (11-of-17 shooting, 6-of-10 from three) with seven assists, while Jaylen Brown had 30 points (12-of-19 shooting, 3-of-6 from three) with six rebounds.

Rafael Nadal is facing new injury concerns, after Taylor Fritz ended his unbeaten streak for 2022 in the Indian Wells Masters final on Sunday.

Having to take a medical timeout during his win in the semi-final against countryman Carlos Alcaraz, the 35-year-old was forced into another injury break against Fritz, before losing 6-3 7-6 (7-5).

Nadal, whose 2021 was halted mid-year due to foot injury after back pain at the start of the season, ultimately rued his inability to fully compete against Fritz.

"I had pain, honestly. I had problems breathing," he said post-match. "I don't know if it's something on the rib, I don't know yet. When I'm breathing, when I'm moving it's like a needle all the time inside. I get dizzy a little bit because it's painful.

"It's a kind of pain that limits me a lot. It's not only about pain, I don't feel very well because [it] affects my breathing."

Nadal's 20-match unbeaten streak for 2022, which saw him claim the Australian Open and Acapulco titles in the process, also came to an end on Sunday. The world number four said the streak ending before coming into the clay season provides particular sadness.

"Honestly, I wanted to make it perfect before clay. [It] has been very, very, very beautiful," Nadal said.

"Honestly, I am sad because the way I was not able to compete. It's tough to have these feelings….but in the final it's very, very ugly. But in sport it's not about talking of the past, we need to talk about today. And today is a difficult day for me. "

Nadal commended Fritz on the victory, however. The 24-year-old claimed his maiden ATP 1000 title despite carrying an ankle injury.

According to the 21-time grand slam winner, it is a sign of things to come from the American, who had to back up from a tough win over Andrey Rublev in the semi-final on Saturday.

"Victories like today help. He played well. He went through some great matches during this week I think, especially yesterday," he said.

"A lot of credit to him on the victory of yesterday. In my opinion, his victory of yesterday is much bigger than his victory of today because he had [a] much tougher opponent in from yesterday.

"He already played great matches in Australia, this year if I'm not wrong, against [Stefanos] Tsitsipas.

"It's obvious that he is improving. With this victory, it's a great start of the season for him. He will have a chance to be very close if not in the top 10 very soon."

Legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is through to the Sweet 16 at his last March Madness before he retires.

'Coach K' is in his 42nd season in charge at the school, and is searching for his sixth national championship.

His Blue Devils took on Michigan State and fellow Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo in the second round on Sunday, pulling away late to win 85-76.

Duke boasts three likely first round picks in this year's NBA Draft, and they showed exactly why, headlined by potential number one overall Paolo Banchero.

Banchero, who stands at six-foot-10, showed his all-round game, hitting tough pull-up jump shots, flashing an advanced interior passing game and defensive mobility to finish with a team-high 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 2-of-5 from long range, and an equal team-high four assists.