Why the hiring of Matt Ryan is a turning point for Arthur Blank’s Falcons

The best thing that has happened to the Falcons since Jan. 22, 2017, happened Saturday.

Unsurprisingly, both revolve around Matt Ryan.

That afternoon, Ryan played nearly flawlessly in the team’s final game in the Georgia Dome in the Falcons’ 44-21 NFC championship game win over the Packers. (You know what happened in the Super Bowl.)

Nine Januarys later, Ryan has returned to the franchise. This time, it’s as president of football in a role created for him. This is a day that looks very much like a most pivotal moment in the franchise’s direction.

After a truly abysmal eight-season stretch (to be fair, the first four of which he was the starting quarterback for), Ryan has come to set things in order.

As granted by owner Arthur Blank, Ryan will carry final decision-making authority on all football decisions. His status as a beloved former star quarterback aside, it is simply very easy to envision him excelling in this role.

Beyond the obvious knowledge of football and the NFL, Ryan is intelligent, humble, diligent, competitive, team-oriented and a leader. He’ll have a lot to learn, but there’s little reason to think he won’t acquire that knowledge as he surrounds himself with people who can help him.

Something else he’ll have to do is enforce accountability. At his end-of-season news conference Thursday, Blank repeatedly brought up the importance of holding people accountable, a clear indication that that was an area where the franchise has been lacking.

Blank was asked what he had learned from his previous head-coach hires. He said that you learn from each experience and fine-tune the model, including defining expectations and ensuring clear communication, alignment in vision and accountability.

“Holding people accountable in a performance-based business, which is what the NFL is, is really important,” Blank said.

Had former coach Raheem Morris done a better job of that with the Falcons’ special-teams struggles this season and the obvious decline of quarterback Kirk Cousins last season following his shoulder and elbow injuries, it’s possible he might not be the former coach.

Former Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and his son Cal greet owner Arthur Blank on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Ryan was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor during halftime. (Miguel Martinez/AJC 2024)

“At times, I think that people, in my view over 25 years in the NFL, there can be too much of a weight on loyalty and not enough of a weight on performance and holding people accountable in a more reasonable period of time,” Blank said.

Was he referring specifically to Morris?

Probably not.

Did it apply?

You could say so.

During former coach Dan Quinn’s tenure, the Falcons had a game at Green Bay and held a walk-through at a local high school. At the end, Quinn called up then-equipment manager Brian Boigner to instruct players on what they should do upon the team’s return to the hotel. Go back to their rooms, change out of their practice gear and put it in a laundry bag before getting lunch.

But when they got to the hotel, a few players went straight to lunch.

“And Matt walked up to them and said, ‘I thought I heard Boigs four times in three minutes tell you what to do when you get back to the hotel,’” Boigner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a column on Ryan in 2024. “‘Why are you guys sitting down eating?’”

If Ryan was willing to hold teammates to the standard that the equipment manager was setting, just imagine how much more he’s going to do that for the team owner.

Part of a statement from Ryan: “Setting clear expectations for every single person who walks into Flowery Branch or puts on a Falcons uniform, reinvigorating our approach with strategic thinking, and being disciplined about finding near-term wins to set us up for long-term success — these are all priorities and principles I will bring to this role.”

In 2007, the Falcons hit bottom. Star quarterback Michael Vick was imprisoned for running a dogfighting operation. Bobby Petrino was a complete disaster as a head coach and bolted before his first season was over for a college coaching job.

The team finished 4-12 and Blank reset franchise leadership. He hired Thomas Dimitroff as his general manager to replace Rich McKay. Mike Smith was brought in as the new coach.

And the meltdown provided the Falcons the No. 3 pick in the 2008 draft. Dimitroff drafted Ryan and the franchise rode his right arm to the most successful chapter in franchise history.

The 2025 season was not a disaster on the same level, but in terms of outcome compared to expectations, it was a generous serving of awful.

It compelled another housecleaning, this one also including McKay getting pushed into the periphery. And it again has brought Ryan to the doors of 4400 Falcon Parkway to pen another chapter of franchise history.