Piece By Joshua Julian
The Atlanta Falcons are a sad, tragic franchise. From their inception in 1966 to the end of the 1980s, they had accumulated five winning seasons and three playoff trips, two of which ended in the divisional round (1978, 1980) and one of which ended in the wild card (1983). The 1990s brought the first semblance of sustained success, as the team accrued three winning seasons and a Super Bowl trip. And while Michael Vick’s arrival brought ta lot more he first real “superstar” since Deion Sanders, on top of more media attention and casual eyeballs on the team, Vick failed to bring any real consistency, as the Falcons would typically alternate winning and losing records with Vick at the helm. Then, a shining knight arrived from up north. He stood 6’4”, weighed 214 pounds, and was deemed the franchise savior, the man to take up Vick’s vacated seat at the helm of the ship, over other contenders like Joe Flacco and Chad Henne. He went by the name Matt Ryan, and throughout his career, he has been the most underrated, under-appreciated quarterback in the history of the NFL.
From his first season in Atlanta, Ryan turned the franchise from an afterthought to a contender. The Falcons made the playoffs four times in Ryan’s first five seasons, with the only year they didn’t make the playoffs being 2009, where Ryan missed a few games because of turf toe. The team was consistently in the top 10 in scoring, peaking at #5 in 2010, as guys like Michael Turner, Roddy White, Michael Jenkins, Tony Gonzalez, and Julio Jones helped create a dangerous, although eventually one-sided, offensive attack. The team peaked, at the time, in 2012, when they fielded a top-five defense, a top-10 offense, and a 13-3 record.
The Falcons made it to the conference finals, where they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in dramatic fashion. After a few rebuilding years, where Julio Jones had some injury problems and the team’s losing record allowed the franchise to select Jake Matthews, Vic Beasley, and Keanu Neal in the first round of the draft. Once 2016 hit, all the pieces were in place for the Falcons to be a threat again. And boy were they a threat. They ranked #1 in the NFL in points scored, and Ryan won the MVP on the back of a stat line that read as follows: 69.9% completion percentage, 4,944 yards, 38 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, and a rating of 117.1. The Falcons blitzed and obliterated every team in their way in the playoffs, before the Event That We Shall Not Talk About Here happened in February. And while the team never got anywhere near the Super Bowl again, the offense has remained in or around the top 10 in yards and points every year. Yet the team has once again fallen into mediocrity, finishing up the last few seasons at 7-9.
So, how is Matt Ryan underrated? Well, let’s discuss a few trends from his career. First off, he’s been to the Pro Bowl four times in his 13-year career, despite the fact that he’s thrown for 4,000 yards every year since 2011, 20+ touchdowns every year since 2009, and has never eclipsed 17 interceptions except for once, 2013, the year where his offensive line was one of the worst in the league and Julio Jones only played in five games. I only mention this because, for some reason, fans love to bring up Pro Bowl appearances as part of a player’s resume. In the end, it’s inconsequential, considering that the Pro Bowl is a popularity contest. How about this part of Matt Ryan’s legacy: the fact that, outside of Atlanta, no one wants to put respect on his name? He’s a one-time All-Pro selection, despite all the numbers cited above. When he won his MVP, a popular argument was that Kyle Shanahan was the reason behind it, and once he left after 2016, he would regress. And yes, he slightly regressed in 2017. But 2018? 69.4% completion percentage, 4,924 yards, 35 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, and a rating of 108.1. This stat line came under the play-calling of the perpetually overmatched Steve Sarkisian, by the way. So, Kyle Shanahan didn’t make Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan’s just never gotten the respect he deserves.
In fact, Falcons fans have slandered the man themselves. I’ve been a fan, roughly, since I could understand football, but I got into it around 2012, and the amount of people I’ve heard call for Matt Ryan to be traded and for the Falcons to start over is absurd. Now here’s where I get into the crux of why I think he’s overlooked and underrated: Matt Ryan is not a transcendent talent. He doesn’t have the arm talent of Patrick Mahomes, nor the athletic ability of Lamar Jackson. He can’t extend plays like Russell Wilson or drop a deep ball out of the sky like Aaron Rodgers. But Matt Ryan rarely, if ever, costs his team the game. He can read a defense as well as any other quarterback, and while he can sometimes play too conservative, he rarely makes a terribly bad read that leads to an interception.
He’s deadly on intermediate routes, and he’s at the least serviceable on deep balls, when he’s got a clean pocket. So, no, Matt Ryan will not single handedly win you a ball game. But day in and day out, Matt Ryan will keep his team in the game. He’ll hit the receivers he needs to hit, he’ll check down when he needs to check down, and he’ll consistently put his team in a great position to win the game. Sure, he’s better when he’s got some solid surrounding talent, but who isn’t? What NFL quarterback shatters records with subpar receivers and a leaky offensive line? Maaaybe Deshaun Watson, but that’s it. Football is a team game, and for the team to succeed, there needs to be talent everywhere.
Matt Ryan deserves way more respect than he gets. Not only has he consistently put up great numbers, but he’s done it for a once-desolate franchise that, thanks to him, has enjoyed its most successful decade in these past 10 years. He has provided a steady hand on the wheel of the Falcons’ offense that, frankly, has never had one. And without that horrific blown lead in the Super Bowl, Ryan’s resume would look even better. But that blown lead should not sit at Ryan’s feet, even though many people place most of the blame on him. There’s plenty of blame to go around. But, anyway, that one moment, and the great supporting cast he’s typically had on offense, should not take away from what Matt Ryan has accomplished in his career. He’s a future Hall of Famer, and more people should start viewing him as such.
All stats courtesy of https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/atl/index.htm
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