Matt Ryan: The Greatest Atlanta Falcon of all time
The First Pass
From Matt Ryan's very first pass in the NFL, it was clear he was special. The play call was "62 comet sink", the result, a 62 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Michael Jenkins, who was running a skinny post. The Falcons won that day 34-21. It would be the first of 120 wins as a starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons.
Mike Smith
Following the 2007 season, Mike Smith was hired as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Smith would go on to be the winningest coach in franchise history. Early on in the reign, the tandem of Smith and GM Thomas Dimitroff put rookie quarterback Ryan in a great position to succeed. Ryan thrived in Mike Mullarkeys run first offense. Michael Turner had arrived that summer from the Chargers on a 6 year $30 million deal and rushed for over 1600 yards in 2008. The Falcons ended Ryan's rookie year with a first round playoff exit at the hands of the Cardinals 30-24. The foundation had been set though, an 11-5 season was beyond even an optimistic fans dreams. Ryan's play saw him win the NFL Offensive rookie of the year award.
The team had never had back to back winning seasons since its inception in 1966, but under Smiths guidance, Ryan would lead the Falcons to five consecutive winning seasons, including four playoff appearances. The duo would lead the Falcons to a 66-46 record over 7 years. Consistent success the Franchise have never experienced. In 2010 and 2012, Ryan led the Falcons to the #1 seed in the NFC. Atlanta had only ever been the #1 seed once in their history, before Ryan arrived in town. As the talent around Ryan diminished, he would have to carry the team with his arm. Despite a non existent pass rush and run game in the 2012 season, "Matty Ice" would guide Atlanta to a 13-3 record. The Falcons fell just short in the NFC Championship game to the San Francisco 49ers.
MVP
The Atlanta Falcons turned to Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to replace Mike Smith following two losing seasons. Quinn would lead the Falcons to an 8-8 record in his first year. In 2016, Dan Quinns second season with the team, Matt Ryan produced one of the greatest quarterbacking seasons in NFL history. Ryan excelled in year two of Kyle Shanahan's system. Shanahan and Ryan were a match made in footballing heaven. Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman gave the Falcons the best one two punch at running back in the league. Austin Hooper and Mo Sanu gave Ryan targets over the middle. Taylor Gabriel's skill set was utilised to perfection and Julio Jones was the star who could do it all. Ryan's 2016 season doesn't get the recognition it deserves, because the season would ultimately end with the Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead to lose Superbowl LI to the New England Patriots in overtime.
His 119.9 Passer Rating for the regular and post season combined is No.1 all time in NFL History for quarterbacks with a minimum of 500 attempts in a season. Ryan set career highs in completion percentage, passing yards, touchdowns, passer rating and yards per attempt. I could live untill I am 100 and I will never see an Atlanta offense as good. In week 4, Matt Ryan eclipsed 500 passing yards in a game vs. Carolina. 300 of those yards went to Julio Jones. The Ryan to Julio connection was as good as any duo I have ever seen. When teams would play two deep safeties to stop the Falcons dynamic pass attack, We would run the ball down their throats. When they adjusted by loading the box, the play action game would kill them.
I am one of the most pessimistic fans you will ever find, but in the second half of the season I was tuning in expecting and knowing we'd put up atleast 30 points regardless of who the opposition were. The offense scored a touchdown on their opening drive in 14 of their 19 games that season. Leading up to the Superbowl, they had a six game win streak where they averaged 39 points per game, scoring over 40 points in 3 of those 6 games. Ryan set an NFL Record, throwing a touchdown to 13 different receivers. Ryan put the team on his back, the 2016 Atlanta Falcons defence was the lowest ranked in NFL history to win 11+ games and win an NFC or AFC Championship. His 144.1 passer rating in Super Bowl LI was the highest amongst Superbowl starting quarterbacks in the last 32 years. It is still heart breaking that we didn't win the Superbowl that season.
On The Field
Thomas Dimitroff thinks Ryan deserves to be in the hall of fame one day and I agree. He has eclipsed 4000 passing yards in all 14 seasons of his career. Ryan has 33 4th quarter comebacks and 42 game winning drives. Ryan is ranked 9th all time in touchdown passes, above notable quarterbacks such as Russell Wilson, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, John Elway and Matt Stafford.
Ryan Michael (@theryanmichael on twitter) put together a chart of all Matt Ryans stats, rankings and records.
Below are individual awards, NFL Records and Franchise Records Matt Ryan holds.
Awards
NFL Most Valuable Player (2016)
NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2016)
AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (2008)
First-team All-Pro (2016)
4x Pro Bowl selections (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
NFL passer rating leader (2016)
NFL completion percentage co-leader (2012)
Bert Bell Award (2016)
PFWA Offensive Player of the Year (2016)
PFWA Offensive Rookie of the Year (2008)
FedEx Air Player of the Year (2016)
NFL Records
Most regular season wins by a quarterback in his first five seasons: 56 (tied with Russell Wilson)
Most consecutive NFL games with at least 200 passing yards (64 games)
Most passing yards in first 10 years in NFL history (41,796)
Most passing yards in first 11 years in NFL history (46,720)
Most passing yards in first 12 years in NFL history (51,186)
Most passing yards in first 13 years in NFL history (55,767)
Franchise Records
Only Falcons quarterback to lead the team to an 8–0 start
Most wins in a regular season by a starting quarterback: 13 (2010 and 2012)
Fewest interceptions in a regular season by starting quarterback — 7 (2016 and 2018) (16 starts)
Most comeback wins in a single season: 5 (2010) (tied with Steve Bartkowski in 1979)
Most career quarterback wins: 120 (2008–2021)
Completions: career (3,630),season (439 in 2013)
Pass Attempts: career (5,157),season (651 in 2013)
Passing Yards: career (38,568), season (4,944 in 2016)
Passing TDs: career (367), season (38 in 2016)
Passer Rating: career (93.7), season (117.1 in 2016),
Off The Field
Matt Ryan is a hall of fame football player and even better man. It was clear early in his Falcons career, that Ryan cared about being part of the community. He spent his 25th birthday volunteering serving food. He hosted annual golf tournaments to raise funds for Children's Healthcare for Atlanta foundation. In 2020, he donated half a million dollars to fundraise to improve the lives of the black community in and around Atlanta. Following the coronavirus outbreak, he donated 100 thousand dollars to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
My Quarterback
Matt Ryan has never been the flashiest quaterback. He never craved attention like Aaron Rodgers, he never threw his teammates under the bus like Russell Wilson, he has always handled himself with class. I have always felt that Ryan has elevated the talent around him. Austin Hooper, Taylor Gabriel, Mo Sanu, Tevin Coleman, Devonta Freeman, Michael Jenkins, Roddy White, Harry Douglas and Cordarelle Patterson all had the best years of their careers with Matt Ryan as their quarterback.
In his latter years with the Atlanta Falcons, the front office missed badly on players through the draft and free agency; Ryan never complained despite consistently having a bottom 5 defence and being the most hit quarterback in the NFL. Having #2 under center, always gave me hope that despite the teams roster being devoid of talent, we always had a chance. He made it possible to believe. His connection with Julio Jones is the reason I fell in love with the Atlanta Falcons. Thomas Dimitroff done a lot of good in his time with Mike Smith and Dan Quinn, but it shouldn't go unnoticed all off the cracks, Ryan papered of with his elite quarterback play. He has been taken for granted in recent years, due to the losing seasons. His durability was remarkable. He only missed 3 games in 14 years. You don't know what you had until you've lost it, those in our fanbase who have been critical of him will realise this. If we find a quarterback who is half the player and man of Matty Ice in the future, we'll have hit the jackpot.
Thank you
I hope the Atlanta Falcons honour Ryan by retiring the No.2 Jersey. He was Mr. Durability, Mr. Reliable, Mr. Atlanta Falcon.
Matt Ryan from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
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