FLOWERY BRANCH — For the first time in Matt Ryan’s NFL career he faces a major fundamental change in how the Falcons will operate on offense.
Some applauded the departure of former coordinator Mike Mularkey, but it’s hard to argue that he presented Ryan with a formula that led to instant success, three trips to the playoffs, one trip to the Pro Bowl and a franchise-record passing mark last season.
Under Mularkey, Ryan posted a 43-19 regular-season record, but 0-3 in the playoffs.
That’s part of the reason why coach Mike Smith was extremely careful in selecting a new coordinator in Dirk Koetter. He believes that if the quarterback/coordinator relationship doesn’t work, the entire operation and possibly the team could implode.
It also must be noted that in 2012, Ryan will work with his third position coach. After working with quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave for two seasons, he had Bob Bratkowski last season. Glenn Thomas was promoted to the spot this season.
“Matt is going through a process,” Smith said. “The relationship between the coordinator and the quarterback is one that probably needs to be the strongest one on the football team. I know that Dirk has worked with Matt as well as with Glenn.”
Upon conclusion of the offseason program Thursday, Smith was pleased with the first steps taken by Ryan and Koetter, who coached for one year (2007) with Smith in Jacksonville.
“Matt, I think, has really progressed,” Smith said. “I think you can see it physically that he’s bigger. I think his arm strength is much-improved from the first four years.”
Koetter and Ryan have spent a lot of time together in order to make sure that they get on the same page with the new offensive attack.
Some of the major differences in the passing attack will be more vertical routes with an emphasis on getting the ball to receivers on the move. Also, the team will implement a package heavy in screen passes.
Koetter and Ryan’s meetings have been fruitful.
“Matt will look you in the eye and tell you how he sees it ...,” Koetter said. “By the same token, I can tell him what I think, what I see and what the coaching staff sees. He takes coaching well, but he also gives good feedback.”
Ryan notes that there are some key differences from Mularkey’s attack.
“We are still so early in the installation part of it that we are still on the basics,” Ryan said. “We are ironing out some things that he likes and things that we’ve done well here in the past.”
On the first day of minicamp, the offense struggled as the defense, under new coordinator Mike Nolan, unleashed a flurry of stunts and blitzes. They offense was bogged down and there were signs of frustration.
In part, that was by design.
“It hasn’t been like the last few years, where Matt knows when he comes out here that the defense is going to install this coverage,” Smith said. “It’s been a little bit more of a chess match between the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator because it’s the first time that they’ve worked together in terms of how we install our offense and defense. This is the first sequence that we had to do it as a new staff.
“That’s always an interesting dynamic, not only for the coaches, but for the players.”
Koetter welcomed the assortment of looks from Nolan.
“Coach Nolan has been giving us a bunch of tough looks defensively — a lot of the problems that you’re going to face during the season, our defense has been showing us those problems,” Koetter said. “That’s great when you see it in practice, so now you’re not seeing it for the first time live.”
During the second minicamp practice Wednesday, the offense was on fire. Ryan was drilling passes to wide receivers Julio Jones and Roddy White. He was cutting up the defense with shots to backup tight ends LaMark Brown and Tommy Gallarda.
It was a dizzying passing display that drew raucous roars from the crowd on the hill and caused White to contend that it was the best practice in the past three seasons.
“I feel good,” Ryan said. “I’ve worked hard this offseason. I feel like I’m in good shape and I felt really good out there during OTAs and minicamp. There is still some time before training camp. There is still time to work hard, to improve ourselves, and I think that everybody has got that mindset.”
Despite tight end Tony Gonzalez missing minicamp because of a death in his family, Ryan felt the offseason workouts were very important in order to help Jones continue to develop.
Jones was all over the field catching passes on the run, putting his hand down on grass to balance himself at times, while still running near top speed.
“He’s had an opportunity to work with our receivers coach Terry Robiskie without the stress of a week during the season and without a game plan,” Ryan said. “He can really just work on technique. Work on route-running and try to understand our offense a little more in depth.”
White has witnessed the give-and-take between Koetter and Ryan and believes that the relationship is headed in the right direction.
“Dirk has made it easy,” White said. “He has things that he’d like to do. We have some things that we like to do, and he just put it together and we’re rolling. Everybody has brought into the system. We are going to just keep rolling.”
