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Monday, April 28, 2008
Ryan will determine if draft is solid
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Had some time to digest the draft and the post-draft interviews of Thomas Dimitroff and Michael Smith.
Here’s the bottom line: If Matt Ryan is a baller at quarterback, then this was a successful draft even though the Falcons virtually ignored the offensive and defensive lines.
Here’s some of the data the Falcons had on Ryan that swayed them to take him over LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.
• Of the Division I-A quarterbacks in the draft who started 24 or more games, Ryan won 76.5 percent of his 34 starts. Louisville’s Brian Brohm won 73.5 percent and Michigan’s Chan Henne won 72 percent of their starts.
• In “big games,” Ryan posted a 10-4 record (2-2 vs. Virginia Tech; 1-1 vs. Florida State; 3-0 vs. Clemson; 1-1 vs. Miami and 3-0 in Bowl Games).
• Before this draft, over his career Ryan only played with five players who were drafted by the NFL. USC’s John David Booty played with 19, Brohm played with 12 and Henne played with 12.
• In film review of Ryan’s play, the Falcons counted 54 dropped passes. Ryan completed 388 of 654 passes (59.3 percent). If his receivers had caught half (27) the drops, his completion percentage would have soared to 63 percent.
• Also, a friend who attended William Penn Charter High in Philadelphia told us to ask Ryan to sing the school’s fight song! It goes something like this, “Penn Charter, Penn Charter, Fight Harder, Fight Harder.”
• At least we know he’s going to “Fight Harder!!!”
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