Matt Ryan arrived first at Camp Exile. That has been the norm the past month for the Falcons quarterback/emergency offensive coordinator/logistics manager/media liaison.
As the man who runs this outpost for disenfranchised football players, he has had to become more versatile than baking soda. And the man in charge should always arrive early.
His workplace now, while the NFL is in lockout mode, is a Buford city park, 10 miles from the protective gates of the Falcons training facility. When Ryan got there Wednesday, he found Buford and Flowery Branch high school linemen on the field, roughing up each other beneath a pitiless sun.
Strange times for the NFL, as the league enters the summer in labor limbo. Such times inspire strange scenes, like a handful of the best football players on the planet sharing a field with 10th-graders learning the swim move.
Normally, Falcons players would be at their fancy Flowery Branch digs, with about another week left in their offseason training activity period. There are 14 of the so-called OTAs allowed each year. It traditionally is a time for getting down some of the basics and conditioning the body before the start of serious training camp.
But with the league in lockout while management and labor try to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement, players have been cast out of their facilities. Front offices have been ordered to shun them like lepers, leaving players to scramble for a place to hold informal workouts.
Ryan says he has not spoken to Falcons coach Mike Smith since the lockout was temporarily lifted at the end of April.
“I had to fly up to Philadelphia for a wedding. He called me, and I talked to him before the flight. By the time I landed, the lockout was back on, so we couldn’t speak after that,” he said.
But, “We had discussed this all prior to the lockout coming and made preparations for what we wanted to accomplish during the offseason.
“It’s never the same as it would be with coaches here, but I think we got on the same page when we understood what was going to go down. I think we’re doing exactly what we need to be doing, and we’re going to be ready when the season rolls around.”
So, welcome to the QOTA, the quasi-organized team activity.
First, don’t get hurt
Fear not, your football players are not all rusting on the shelf. Twice a week for the past month, a small collection of Falcons has been running patterns and practicing defensive techniques on an almost-pro quality artificial field. All without a single coach on hand to shout encouragement into their earholes.
“We’re all in this together — it’s a democracy now,” chuckled backup quarterback Chris Redman.
If no labor accord is reached, they will try to carry these sessions through to the end of the month, Ryan said. After that, who knows?
These practices are not exactly blood-and-guts ordeals. The numbers of players involved have fluctuated according to personal schedules. Last week, 24 showed up Tuesday, 19 on Wednesday. They are brief, lasting less than an hour, consisting mostly of seven-on-seven passing drills. They are separate of the more strenuous individual conditioning programs most of them go through earlier in the day.
Since any serious injury suffered in these drills could imperil a player’s contract, there is a heavy emphasis on avoiding any contact.
“Stay up! Stay up!” Ryan regularly shouts during a session, whenever a player extends himself to the point of falling to the ground.
Wednesday, the Falcons’ prize first-round draft choice Julio Jones soared for a one-handed, off-balance catch in the end zone that would have made all the highlight shows. For his trouble, as he picked himself off the turf, he got a reminder from Ryan to take it easy.
“You kind of back off a little bit too because of the situation,” said tight end Justin Peelle. “The guys are smart. We don’t want to get our feet tangled, don’t want a collision with anybody. If the ball’s up, [the defenders] are usually letting us go get it; they’re not really competing for it. Don’t want to risk an injury.”
“Our No. 1 goal is the same as it is when we’re with coach Smith: We need to get to the first game healthy,” Ryan said.
During last week’s two QOTAs, there were sights that drove home just how out of character and out of sorts the NFL is during this lockout:
● Well-to-do NFL players changing shoes in the parking lot, using truck tailgates like locker room stools.
● Professional practices turning into BYOSD (bring your own sports drink) mixers.
● Muscled-up men working on goal line pass routes at one end of the field while a trio of high school girls ran 40-yard dashes at the other.
● Teammates working out in a ragged, unmatched assortment of athletic gear (one undrafted free agent defensive back practiced in a white tank-top undershirt; a veteran safety broke out a pair of gleaming gold cleats). It apparently is not chic to wear any official Falcons clothing while in the midst of a labor dispute.
And one other lockout fashion note — earrings sparkling from the lobes of players as they sweat it out on the field.
There certainly came sounds unlike any you’d hear during a sanctioned NFL workout:
“Julio, I’m going to have to ask you to take off the sunglasses,” Ryan called out to his new wide receiver before one drill.
Leadership role
At the center of the effort to keep the Falcons together during the lockout is Ryan, a fourth-year quarterback who now is acquiring a whole different set of leadership chops.
He was the one who reached out to Buford coach Jess Simpson for permission to use his first-class practice field. He writes the script for each day’s workout. He also has helped coordinate media coverage of these loose workouts — in fact, Ryan is probably more accessible in this setting than he would be in the controlled confines of Flowery Branch.
He has drawn the line, however, at having his new wife bring juice boxes and snacks for the players after practice.
Teammates on both sides of the ball are getting a whole new view of their young quarterback. “With no coaches here, he is our coach on the field. Getting out here early, getting the offense clicking, getting things organized — that’s huge right now,” safety William Moore said.
Ryan said he has been pleased with the turnout at Camp Exile, even if his go-to receiver, Roddy White, hasn’t been a participant.
“It’s OK. I’ve talked to Roddy a bunch,” he said. “He’s staying in really good shape, and he’ll be ready to roll when the season comes around. He knows what it takes to get ready. As it gets closer and closer, we’ll get together a little bit. Might not necessarily be here, but we’ll get together a little bit and get some good work.”
They all seem to still talk in terms of when the season will happen, not if it will. The players still hope that they were not wasting their time running around on a hot field in Buford.
“I believe in my heart [a deal] is going to get done,” Peelle said. “I don’t believe we are going to lose games. I don’t think we’re going to lose preseason games either. I think we’ll all be working by the end of July, the beginning of August when we’re supposed to.”
“Everybody wants football. You see how big the game is, how much it would hurt not just us but everybody — the fans, the fantasy players, everybody — if there is no football this year,” receiver Michael Jenkins said.
If the season does happen, could a few tip-toeing-around-the-field practice reps in June really make one bit of difference come December?
“Absolutely,” Moore claimed.
“This [lockout] is going to turn out to be a positive to many organizations, because it’s an opportunity for guys to come out here and show they are willing to do small things, with no coaches around. It shows you who the leaders are on this team.
“It will matter because the small things matter. If there is anybody lounging around and not coming out, working out, it will show. You can’t cheat this game.”
And, should the season not happen, the quarterback at least will have built quite a varied resume over the summer. Even in a tough economy, he should have no trouble landing a fallback job.
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