Matt Ryan Sheds a Light on his Relationship With 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan
Kyle Shanahan has been under the microscope due to his inability to find stability at the quarterback position for the San Francisco 49ers.
He's entering Year 7 with the franchise, yet there is still no cemented franchise quarterback. You have to wonder if he is even capable of getting a quarterback to improve himself. Well, if you were to ask 16 year veteran quarterback Matt Ryan, he would give a fairly enlightening rave review about Shanahan's coaching. The two spent two seasons together with the Falcons where he oversaw Ryan earning the MVP award in 2016.
Two seasons is a pretty short time, but in that span the relationship of Ryan and Shanahan grew. Ryan recently joined the Take Command podcast with Craig Hoffman and former 49ers tight end Logan Paulsen.
"The thing I always appreciated about him is you knew exactly where he stood," said Ryan. "There was no gray area. There was zero gray area of how he felt, and I always appreciated that. As a player, you want honest feedback. All I want is for you to put me in a position to be successful and I want to play my best. I think that he pushed me to get better. He pushed me outside of my comfort zone. There was a lot of stuff early on, I was like, 'Hey, I haven't really done that in my career. I haven't specialized in this, but we've done more of this.' And he goes, 'I don't care, Matt. You can.' He's like, 'I don't care what you've done. I know what you can do,' and pushed me to get better. I appreciate him for that."
Shanahan pushing his quarterbacks, and players overall, is definitely his schtick. Although, I wonder if his style and demeanor in this regard has changed now that he is a head coach instead of an offensive coordinator. A lot of 49ers players have referenced Shanahan's coaching as "tough love," so there is an old school mentality with him. It's probably why a fair amount of young players struggle early on. That doesn't really resonate and click with them, thus they end up in Shanahan's "doghouse" as it has been dubbed.
Ryan revealed more about Shanahan going back to the first year he became offensive coordinator of the Falcons.
"The first year we were together we were both kind of feeling each other out, we're kind of being nice to each other or whatever. And then we had this kind of meeting in the offseason between my first and second year with him, and we came to the agreement that we both just had to let it out. Like, we need to have these back-and-forth go-at-each-other or whatever. So we would have the meetings up in the offensive coordinator spot where he'd be just on my ass, getting after me, and I'd be going back at him.
"He'd call me on the ride home, I would be leaving. I'd be like, 'Man, that was intense. Hopefully, it's all good tomorrow.' And then he'd call me on the ride home, and he'd be like, 'Dude, that was awesome. Exactly what we needed. We're in a great spot for install tomorrow.' And I'd be like, 'All right, we're good.' So it turned into a really great relationship. I enjoyed playing for him, but we were both headstrong, and both had great belief in what we were doing. And I really think we both pushed each other to be the best versions of ourselves."
My takeaway from Ryan sharing this is Shanahan is best for veteran players. Ryan had already been in the league for seven years at that point and had been a part of several playoff teams. He's a high level competitor who was an excellent talent at quarterback. It's why he was able to have that pushback versus Shanahan. They're both obsessed with winning like true proven veterans. Unlike with young players, they need more finesses and upbringing. They are not proven and need time to grow. That's likely why the quarterback position never has any long-term answers. Patience is not a virtue of Shanahan.
Either way, this was a great share from Ryan.
