Atlanta Falcons legend, icon and savior of the franchise

On April 22, 2024, quarterback Matt Ryan announced his official retirement from the National Football League, nearly 16 years after the fateful day of his selection. Matt Ryan gave his heart and soul to this football team, leaving it all on the field, and took our beloved franchise to new heights, completely turning the trajectory of this team around. While he will sadly forever be remembered for Super Bowl 51, his legacy goes much deeper, cementing him as one of the most underrated quarterbacks in NFL history.

In 2007, the Falcons were coming off a disappointing performance. They finished with just 4 wins and last place in the NFC South. They were bad enough to land the third overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, and with that, the rest is history.

With the third pick, the Atlanta Falcons of course selected Matthew Thomas Ryan from Boston College. Matt Ryan entered the league and immediately started tearing it up. I don’t mean to exaggerate that he literally dominated the league from his very first snap. Ryan’s very first pass in the NFL was a 62-yard strike to Michael Jenkins for a touchdown.

Ryan finished the season with 16 touchdowns (16th in the NFL) and over 3,400 yards (13th in the NFL) en route to winning 11 games and leading the Atlanta Falcons to the playoffs. His numbers were good enough to win him the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Falcons lost 24-30 to the Arizona Cardinals, who made the Super Bowl that season, in the first round of the playoffs.

Matt Ryan continued to have a winning record in each of the next 4 seasons, making the playoffs in 3 of those seasons, including an NFC Championship appearance. He made Atlanta Falcons franchise history by giving us back-to-back winning seasons for the first time EVER and he gave us 5 straight winning seasons. Before 2008 (when Matt Ryan was drafted), the Falcons had a winning percentage of 40.5. From 2008 to 2021 (Matt Ryan’s final season in Atlanta), the Falcons had a 53.3 winning percentage as well as 2 NFC Championship appearances and 1 Super Bowl appearance.

During his tenure with Falcon, Matt Ryan won 120 games, an average of 9 games per season. From 1968 (the Falcons’ conception year) to 2007, the Falcons only won 9 or more games 7 times. 7 times. Matt AVERAGED this per season. Not only that, but Matt broke an NFL record for MOST wins in ANY quarterback’s first 5 seasons with 56 wins.

Matt Ryan also won the franchise’s one and only MVP. In 2016, Matt Ryan threw 38 touchdowns to just 7 interceptions, led the Falcons to 11 wins and the second seed in the NFC, and won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award. He broke numerous records this year, including: being the first quarterback to throw a touchdown to 13 different receivers in the same season, most yards per attempt (YPA) in a season EVER with 9.3, and the only game in NFL history features a 500-yard passer and a 300-yard receiver in the same game.

During his entire time in Atlanta, Matt Ryan only had a top-10 defense once. Despite this, he still coached the Falcons to the playoffs 6 times. He took the 26th best defense (based on points per game stats) to the Super Bowl and nearly beat the GOAT en route to our franchise’s first ring. Unfortunately, the game didn’t go our Falcon’s way, but Matt Ryan played very well. He made one of the best plays in Super Bowl history on the running throw that hit Julio Jones down the right sideline late in the 4th quarter. Matt had the highest passer rating in Super Bowl history in that loss at Super Bowl 51, he truly left everything he had on the field that night.

In 2012, Joe Flacco had a memorable Cinderella run in which he defeated numerous opponents en route to winning the Baltimore Ravens their second Super Bowl. This is known as one of the greatest playoff runs of all time, and in 4 games, Flacco threw for 11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 1,140 yards (285.5 yards per game), with a completion percentage of 57.9% and a passer rating of 117.2. In 2016, in 3 games, Matt Ryan recorded: 10 total touchdowns, 0 interceptions (1 lost fumble), 1,014 yards (338 yards per game), with a completion percentage of 71.4% and a rating of passer of 135.2. Matt Ryan’s 2016 playoff run was elite by any definition of the word elite, it’s so unfortunate that it will only be remembered for how it ended.

The MVP season was huge, but there are so many other NFL records and stats about Matt Ryan that most don’t know about. For example, Matt Ryan currently holds the record for most consecutive games with 200+ passing yards and 64 of those games. He has the most completions in a quarterback’s first 9 years with 3,288 and the most yards as well.

I will now explain some relatively specialized statistics which remain very impressive. Matt Ryan is just one of three quarterbacks in NFL history to have over 4,000 yards passing in 6 consecutive seasons. Matt Ryan has the 3rd most touchdowns in a quarterback’s first 5 years, behind Peyton Manning and Dan Marino. Matt Ryan is one of only two quarterbacks to have thrown for over 4,500 yards and over 25 touchdowns, with a completion percentage over 66% in consecutive seasons. He is only one of five quarterbacks to have a season with more than 35 touchdowns and fewer than 10 interceptions and one of only three quarterbacks to have multiple such seasons. He is just one of two quarterbacks to have thrown for over 4,500 yards in 5+ consecutive seasons.

Ryan’s 62,792 career passing yards rank him 7th in NFL history, higher than players such as Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford. Ryan’s 381 career passing touchdowns are good for 9th in NFL history, higher than players such as Eli Manning, Russell Wilson and Matthew Stafford.

To put it all in perspective, from 2008 to 2021, Matt Ryan gave the Falcons 7 winning seasons (including 5 in a row, when the team had never even had a consecutive game before), 2 appearances in the NFC Championship (the franchise had only 2 total from 1968 to 2007), 1 Super Bowl appearance (franchise only had 1 from 1968 to 2007), and won the franchise’s only MVP award.

Matt has done so much for this franchise and was 15 minutes away from presenting the coveted Lombardi Trophy.

Thank you for everything Matt, Atlanta will never forget you and always love you.