Is Falcons QB Matt Ryan An NFL Top 100 Player?
Matt Ryan is the NFL's version of AMC stock. Just when you think it's time to sell, he has a little surge to suck you back in. From finished, to frenzy.
After being embarrassingly excluded from Pro Football Network's Top 100 players in 2020, the Atlanta Falcons' veteran quarterback wedged his 36-year-old foot in the door and sneaked in this year at No. 99.
READ MORE: Falcons release 2021 training camp schedule
Making the list - whew! - stops an ominous slide for Ryan. In PFN's rankings he had dropped from No. 10 (2017) to 29th (2018) to 69th (2019) to out of sight last season.
The Falcons obviously toyed with the idea of replacing Ryan by drafting Ohio State's Justin Fields in April, but decided instead to give him another go-round with No. 1 receiver Calvin Ridley replacing the departed Julio Jones and a shiny new toy of a weapon in Florida tight end Kyle Pitts.
Says PFN of Ryan ...
99) Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta Falcons
Speaking of consistency — Matt Ryan, everybody! Ryan’s ability to be above average in nearly every imaginable metric leads him to the PFN NFL Top 100 list heading into 2021.
Ryan is probably the last true old-school pocket passer to find success at the NFL level. He missed out on cracking PFN’s Top 100 Players in 2020, but despite a nightmare season from a win/loss perspective, he played incredibly well at age 35.
Ryan’s accuracy has always been on the upper end of NFL quarterbacks, and he takes care of the football despite being aggressive and pushing the ball downfield. Still, it’s peculiar that Ryan took fewer sacks as a younger QB than he has in his more advanced years.
By NFL standards, Ryan is a dinosaur. A pocket passer who kills you with accuracy rather than mobility. His approach has produced 4,000+ passing yards for 10 consecutive years, and allowed him to lead the league in completions the last two seasons. The downside? He's been sacked a staggering 131 times over the last three seasons.
READ MORE: Is Matt Ryan Still A Top 10 NFL QB?
The Falcons - like those vintage AMC move theater investors - believe there's still room for an old-school slinger to have success in the NFL. So does PFN.
But just barely.
