Happy Birthday, Matt Ryan!: The Face of Our Franchise
By John Buhler
Today is Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan’s 30th Birthday. Ryan has played his entire NFL career for our Falcons and has cemented a reputation as one of the league’s premier passers in his first seven seasons. The 3-Time Pro Bowl QB has already eclipsed Falcons Ring of Honor Member Steve Bartkowski as the franchise’s most decorated passer. Ryan has thrown the football more times, for more completions, and for more yards and touchdowns than any quarterback in the Atlanta Falcons fifty year history. Though he hasn’t won a Super Bowl for the Dirty Birds, his legacy is still impressive as Ryan now enters the second half of his NFL career.
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I remember how lost the Falcons looked in 2007 during the Bobby Bleeping Petrino Era. Atlanta had no identity after the Michael Vick Dog Fighting Scandal. I couldn’t stomach Joey Harrington or Byron Leftwich under center during the Lost Year. Arthur Blank knew that his team needed a new face of the franchise and there was a promising young quarterback lighting it up in the ACC for Boston College.
Atlanta had the third overall selection in the 2008 NFL Draft. The Falcons won a three-way coin flip with the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs for the third pick. When I saw that Atlanta was picking third, I could sense that new GM Thomas Dimitroff would take Matt Ryan out of Boston College if he was still on the board at three.
Miami selected OT Jake Long out of Michigan as their franchise blind side protector. St. Louis who still had a Pro Bowl QB on their roster in Marc Bulger drafted DE Chris Long out of Virginia, son of Raiders’ Pass Rushing Legend Howie Long, to get after opposing QB’s. I knew that Miami and St. Louis would regret not taking Ryan at one or two.
Ryan is the type of man you want to build your franchise around. He’s highly cerebral, he’s a very accurate passer, he’s a locker room leader and a pillar in the Atlanta community. He will break the 30,000 pass yard threshold this fall and he could be one of the all-time great quarterbacks when it’s all said and done.
People will always pick apart a QB until he wins a Super Bowl. But there are several quarterbacks that are in Canton or well on their way there that have never won a championship: Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Philips Rivers, Donovan McNabb, etc. With every start for the Atlanta Falcons, win or lose, Matt Ryan gives the Falcons a chance to contend. He’s a top ten passer in the NFL. The front office just needs to give him better protection and a defense that can shorten drives, so that Ryan can go out and march the Falcons down the field and into the endzone.
Happy Birthday, Matt! We’re looking forward to all that lies ahead for your Falcons in 2015 under Dan Quinn. Rise Up!