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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > April > 26
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Picking Ryan ‘highly debatable’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — Matt Ryan? Not a brutal pick for the Falcons at No. 3 overall in the NFL draft on Saturday, but it was far from brilliant. Mediocre comes to mind, and so does this thought: If Michael Vick wasn’t officially gone before as the face of the Falcons, he is now.
That is, unless Vick leaves his flag-football team in prison as an offensive tackle, defensive tackle or cornerback, among the slew of positions his former team still needs to solidify to become relevant again.
Whether the Falcons still need to fill Vick’s old position of quarterback after selecting Ryan is debatable.
Highly debatable.
These two things aren’t debatable: First, with Ryan’s selection, Falcons officials dramatically sacked the public whispers about whether No. 7 and his exciting but controversial ways ever will return to the franchise again. Second, if you go by logic when it comes to trying to change the momentum of a reeling franchise, the Falcons just blew it, especially with the extraordinary Glenn Dorsey sitting there on the draft board as the defensive tackle that they really need. That’s because they don’t have any defensive tackles worth mentioning. Not only that, franchises such as the Falcons with offensively and defensively impaired lines should start by building those lines.
Instead, the Falcons drafted a quarterback, and remember: They don’t have enough decent folks to block for the guy anyway, even if he does play any time soon. It also isn’t comforting to know that the Falcons tried to help Ryan’s plight by trading for another first-round pick at No. 21 to reach for Sam Baker, an offensive lineman with short arms and owner of a damaged hamstring last season at USC.
Ryan has normal arms, and he lacks health issues, but he does have history issues to overcome. Quarterbacks taken in the first round often evolve into Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, David Carr or Alex Smith instead of somebody good. And, yes, Ryan has a nice resume. He completed 59 percent of his 654 passes last season at Boston College for 4,507 yards and 31 touchdowns. He also won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and was the ACC Player of the Year.
It’s just that Leaf was Ryan after leading Washington State to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years while throwing a Pac 10-record 33 touchdowns. Couch was Ryan after leaving Kentucky with NCAA records for completions in a season and career completion percentage (67). Carr was Ryan after winning the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award while making Fresno State significant in football for the first time ever as a Sports Illustrated cover boy. Alex Smith was Ryan after helping Urban Meyer jump to the Mighty Gators after Ryan became the mighty engine for Urban Meyer’s spread offense at Utah.
Let’s just say Leaf, Couch, Carr and Smith aren’t in Starr, Montana, Favre or Manning territory. “Yeah, I’ve understood that along the way, as far as the percentages,” said general manager Thomas Dimitroff, running his first draft for the Falcons, or any NFL team, for that matter. “However, I think with Matt, it’s a combination of the intelligence that he has. The leadership ability that he has. I can’t stress it enough. He not only has the ability to take the offense but the whole team [to success]. To me, that’s huge. “I’ve been around a situation in New England where we had a quarterback with that same ability.”
Speaking of New England and that quarterback, Dimitroff spent six seasons working in the Patriots’ scouting department, and this is the same Patriots franchise that won three of its four Super Bowls with Tom Brady leading the way.
Brady was a sixth-round pick.
With all of those picks for the Falcons (11 overall, including four among the top 48 to start the day), they could have selected Dorsey at No. 3 and taken a chance later in the draft on John David Booty, Chad Henne or Andre’ Woodson becoming their Tom Brady. After all, those quarterbacks aren’t that much more of an NFL gamble than the one they got.
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