This offseason Atlanta Falcons franchise quarterback Matt Ryan received a five-year $150 million extension with $100 million guaranteed. On the easy math side it breaks down as $30 million a year and that is not counting endorsements.
Ryan has been a good quarterback for his 10 years in the NFL, I mean he won NFL MVP in 2016, but Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 25 point (forgetting to run the ball) comeback in the Super Bowl erased whatever you remember of that campaign. The 4x Pro Bowler and All-Pro has put in work no matter how you look at him. He took over a franchise for a city you had mad love for Michael Vick. That is a tough situation to come into, but he was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2008. He has seen multiple contract extensions, so Arthur Blank (owner) and the higher ups have love for the young man out of Boston College.
Yesterday I watched the Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles play and besides it being a low scoring game I noticed that Ryan was off. I know it was the first game of the season, but he just didn’t look good a lot of his passes were behind the intended targets. Even though Julio Jones had a monster game, he could’ve had a better game if his quarterback would’ve been more accurate with his throws. I personally saw four or five passes that just looked bad and he had ample time in the pocket on most throws. On a one on one with Jones he missed him on a deep ball and it looked like it was launched out of a noodle arm machine. It is weird to see because he does sport a 64.8 career completion percentage.
It is also the past two years Ryan and Jones can’t make plays in the red zone. The whole blame can’t be laid on Ryan the offensive coordinator has to do a better job in designing plays to get their star the ball, but Ryan does have to take it upon himself to fix this red zone situation. If teams don’t have to worry about Jones in the red zone that allows play calls to get a lot easier for the other side of the ball.
This was the second year in a row that the Eagles made Ryan look less than average. Is this a trend or is this just a function of the first game of the season? Only time will tell, but know this he is $100 million richer guaranteed.
