This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > May > 11
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Ryan the right QB for Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — He was the right pick at the right time, and here’s why: When you watch the Falcons work, your first thought is no longer about the man who isn’t there; instead your eyes keep moving until you find the new guy. And you like, it must be said, what you see.
That other person, the one who’s in prison, has been rendered yesterday’s news. Tomorrow belongs to the new guy, and this franchise is better for it. The Falcons needed to move on, and how better to do it than with the first draft choice under new management?
Thomas Dimitroff said he didn’t take Matt Ryan because of “symbolism. We needed a quarterback, and he was the best fit for the team.” But then Dimitroff, who grasps both the details and the big picture, concedes the ancillary point: “Now that [the need for a clean break with Michael Vick] was a sidebar.”
Just as there are Falcons fans who aren’t ready to look beyond Vick, there are those who believe this team would have done better by drafting someone else. Those folks will soon feel differently. They will see what Dimitroff saw in Ryan, and what the general manager has seen again in the first two days of minicamp.
“He’s quite impressive,” said Dimitroff, watching the first of Sunday’s two sessions. “In his first practice yesterday there was an element of focus and — I don’t want to say comfort exactly — presence. You look at him now, and you see his savvy and his ability. Yesterday he was tapping himself on the helmet if he made a mistake, saying it was his fault.”
For the record, Ryan hasn’t done everything perfectly. No quarterback ever has. But he’s further along than any rookie has a right to be — “I’m a little more comfortable today,” he said Sunday — and he’s conspicuously the best at his position on this roster. The ball leaves his hand with more authority than when Chris Redman or Joey Harrington delivers a pass, and there seems a palpable sense of purpose when Ryan takes even the third string in and out of a huddle.
“I’ve been really pleased,” said Mike Mularkey, the offensive coordinator. “He’s got more on his plate than most players do; he’s taking a play from me and executing it with all the mechanisms. He can only get better, but does he need to get a whole lot better? No. … He’s not turning around and asking, ‘What was the play?’ He’s got the right answers about everything, and he’s got the right questions, which is even more important.”
We keep hearing about first-round quarterback duds — Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, Akili Smith, David Carr, even Harrington — but what we need to ask is: Did any of those possess the same set of tangibles (size and arm strength) and intangibles (football intelligence and leadership capability) as Matt Ryan? The answer is no. He might not win a Super Bowl, but he will not be a flop. He will not allow himself to be a flop.
Mularkey again: “I see him fixing things. I’m usually in the back [during practice] fixing things, but I can’t be there during games. I’ve told him, ‘You’ve got to get the team to follow you.’ “
He did it Boston College, and he’ll do it here. Here’s head coach Mike Smith, recalling Ryan’s predraft workout in Boston: “There were five guys working out with him, and you could feel the energy when he walked into the room. ‘Hey, Matty Ice!’ Seeing the respect he commanded was the thing that struck me the most.”
Some guys just have ‘It,’ however we define that tiny but mighty word. Matt Ryan is among the few. He’ll be starting before the year’s out, and he’ll be winning soon enough. And we don’t need to concern ourselves about what could or should happen when No. 7 gets out of prison. The Falcons have their quarterback, and he wears No. 2.
Permalink | Comments (77) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
