Once you get past the assumption that quarterback Matt Ryan is always there, taken for granted like light and air, and really dig into the details of his constancy, it can be a little daunting.
Like when he was presented the notion that no one else from the 2008 Falcons, his first team after being taken third in that draft, is still active in the NFL. Ryan took a moment, chewed on it, and could think of no exception.
So how does that make him feel? “I guess good – and old – at the same time, kind of,” he chuckled. Among NFL quarterbacks, the old coot, 36 now, is third in line in years of service with one team, behind only Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. That puts him in Rushmore-ian franchise-face territory.
Like all those other quarterbacks, head coaches come and go, too. New guy Arthur Smith is Ryan’s third here, not counting interims. This isn’t even his first Falcons head coach surnamed Smith (Mike Smith came before).
Offensive coordinators blow in and out of town. Five of them have set the stage for Ryan – and now it will be Smith’s voice in his helmet relaying plays for Sunday’s opener against Philadelphia. Ryan, he just goes with the flow, the iceberg in a sea of change.
Then there’s the durability part of the equation. Since 2008, the Falcons offense has snapped the ball 13,544 times. While not always successful, there is one common thread running through most of those plays. Ryan has taken 13,093 of them, or 96.7% of the total. If the Falcons call a play and Matt Ryan is not running it, did it really happen?
Anyway, you get the point: Matt Ryan has been a Falcon – an essential Falcon – since the day before forever.
Despite the ruminations that the Falcons needed to begin the search for his successor, and all the temptations of this past quarterback-rich draft, Ryan still serves as the Falcons’ weight-bearing beam. And he has no reason to look over his shoulder for there is no backup here capable of pushing him or alienating the fans’ affections. The fate of another season begins and ends with him.
When asked about how safe and warm he feels with that idea, what else is an owner to say but, “Very comfortable.”
“We understand that time does catch up with everybody even though there is a quarterback in our division that is 44 and just won the Super Bowl (Tom Brady),” Arthur Blank said. “Matt at 36 is in really good shape physically, emotionally, and his performance hasn’t dropped off. ... I think we felt good about going forward with him and he felt good about it.”
When asked about the benefits of inheriting a 13-year veteran quarterback who has thrown for 4,000 yards each season for the last decade and owns any franchise passing record worth owning, what else can a new coach be but thankful?
“We got a lot of faith in Matt, and it certainly helps you put in things at a quicker pace knowing he can handle it,” Smith said. Among the many challenges facing Smith as he adjusted to his first head coaching job, at least he hasn’t had to hold a young quarterback’s hand.
For Ryan to resist the erosion of time make it beyond what any quarterbacking actuarial table would suggest is rational, you figure the man has a stubborn streak Downtown Connector wide. You’d figure right.
“My wife would tell you it’s my personality – stubborn and hard-headed,” Ryan said earlier this month. “And I think it’s just part of how I grew up, being a younger brother, trying to keep up all the time. I was kind of always told that if you can keep up and play as good as those guys three or four years older and not whine and complain or cry, you can hang out with them. It’s not that much different now, just the opposite end: You’re trying to keep up with older guys when you’re younger. Now it’s trying to keep up with younger guys as you’re older. I’ve flipped the roles.”
You also figure that Ryan hasn’t made it this long without also learning and growing with life experience. Right again. You’re on a roll.
One example: He’ll point to the birth of his twin sons as the kind of event that created broad ripples spilling over into how he does his job.
“I think I’m probably a little more patient with some of our young guys from that experience,” he said. “I’m probably more patient than I was as a younger guy, that’s good. I can tend to be a bit impatient at times.
So, then, what’s more difficult, making himself understood by a pair of 3-year-old toddlers or by a rookie receiver?
“My 3-year-olds don’t listen to me. At least some people here in the building listen to me. The wideouts listen from time to time. My kids never listen.”
If any NFL player survives long enough, and even more if he enjoys the compensation of an elite quarterback, he becomes more than the sum of his completions, passing yards and touchdowns. He becomes a salary-cap number. And that’s a figure inevitably used against him as his team and his fan base weighs the future. It’s as if the most important position on the field becomes a luxury item that needs to be justified on a ledger that can barely meet basic needs.
The Falcons always are cooking the books to make Ryan – the 10th-highest paid quarterback in the league – work. Under the latest restructuring, he’ll count for nearly $27 million against the cap this year, according to Spotrac.com. The can has been kicked to next season, when that number would balloon to nearly $49 million.
For all that Ryan has accomplished, that number figures to be paramount going forward, looming as a reason to look on him as a drag on the future rather than a solution. If Ryan resents this, he doesn’t show it.
“We all understand there’s a business aspect to it,” he said. “For me, it’s about putting the work in day in and day out and being that same person who comes to work every day and shows what they’re about.”
In the meantime, while the salary doomsday clock ticks, Ryan, the constant, adapts to another season of change. He’ll still look over to the corner locker that was once the province of trusted target Julio Jones, now a Tennessee Titan, and see a strange void.
“I’ve had that in my career, like when Tony (Gonzalez) left or when Roddy White retired,” he said, speaking of a favored tight end and wideout since retired. “It is strange at the beginning because you’ve been with guys for so long. There’s definitely a transition.”
Now it’s Calvin Ridley and rookie Kyle Pitts that demand his attention. Now it’s another version of an offensive line that will attempt to keep him upright after suffering 40-plus sack seasons each of the past three seasons. Good luck with that.
But Ryan has found reason to recharge in Smith. Asked what he finds most exciting about the new guy calling plays, the quarterback answers, “His approach to the game. He sees it very similar to how I see it. It’s about being detailed, disciplined, consistent and out-executing people. That’s going to be the task we have as players.
“Art’s creative, too. He has different ideas; he’s not set in his ways all the time. At the end of the day, football comes down to the basics. It’s about blocking well. It’s about finishing runs well, protecting the football, being accurate with the football, those kind of things. He’s a believer in that. I very much appreciate that from him.”
Smith opted to keep Ryan, among a few others, off the field during the preseason. It’s a fair bet that entering his 14th season with the Falcons he won’t mistakenly put his hands under a guard for the first snap against the Eagles. “I think I’ll know where to line up,” he light-heartedly said. “I think I’ll know what to do when whatever comes up.”
Smith’s approach to the exhibition games only heightens the uncertainty that accompanies a new staff and a new beginning into Sunday’s game. Preseasons usually reveal little, but this one showed us nothing.
“There is always the unknown going into the first game. Whether it’s a new staff or a staff you’ve been with for a long time, there are unknowns going into any season,” Ryan said.
Just don’t count the quarterback among those. He is the 2021 Falcons’ most known quantity, and as such the one who will have to bear his share and more of whatever this season becomes.
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