Watch: On Quarterback Lists, Ryan Finding it Don’t Mean a Thing Without the Ring
Since Drew Brees’ record setting Monday night performance, rankings of quarterbacks have begun to show up on Twitter and football websites. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk tweeted out a list that compared his rankings to a list by Phil Simms.
Florio placed Brees fifth, just ahead of Aaron Rodgers on his list of all-time greats. Simms had Brees cracking the list at No. 10, but had Rodgers at the top (over Tom Brady, John Elway, Peyton Manning and others). In these, and most other lists you’ll see, Rodgers is considered a lock as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The problem with that is, Matt Ryan has had a similar career to Rodgers but he’s never in the all-time great conversation. Why? It’s all about the ring. Rodgers has one and Ryan doesn’t.
In the 2008 NFL Draft, quarterback Matt Ryan was the third overall pick by the Atlanta Falcons. Coincidentally, that was Aaron Rodgers’ first season as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers after serving three seasons as Brett Favre’s understudy. That makes it easier to make some solid comparisons between the two.
While Rodgers has appeared in three more postseasons than Ryan, he’s led his team to the Super Bowl the same number of times, once. In Super Bowl XLV, the Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. As far as Super Bowl LI goes, the less said, the better, at least for Falcons fans, but Ryan has shouldered the blame for that loss to the New England Patriots ever since while some of the biggest coaching blunders in Super Bowl history have gone undiscussed.
The first brain cramp came with first and ten at New England’s 22-yard line and 4:40 remaining in the game. In one minute, due to a sack and 10-yard holding call the Falcons lost 23 yards. Instead of taking a commanding two score lead late in the game with a field goal, Matt Bosher had to punt.
The second blunder came straight from the mind of head coach Dan Quinn. Somehow, Tom Brady fired a pass into coverage that Julian Edelman made a borderline catch on at the Atlanta 41. Quinn threw the challenge flag before the first replay began running on television. A replay that clearly showed Edelman had bobbled but caught the pass without the ball hitting the ground.
A deep breath’s worth of patience would have allowed word to get to Quinn to leave the flag in his pocket. Instead, he burned the Falcons final time out.
After the Patriots tied the game, Ryan got his hands on the ball on his own eleven, 52 seconds left in the game, and no time out in his pocket. Matt Bryant had been perfect in nine attempts between 40-49 yards that season, so all Ryan needed was sixty-yards and had already completed a 39-yarder to Devonta Freeman, a 27-yard pass to Julio Jones and a 35-yarder to Taylor Gabriel that game.
With a timeout in his pocket, Ryan would have had the entire field to work with. Without it, New England’s secondary cut off the sideline routes and the Falcons offense stalled.
Don’t think Ryan couldn’t have pulled it off? He’s eighth in NFL history, tied with legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas, with 38 game winning drives (his nickname isn’t Matty Ice for nothing). John Elway has 40 and Ryan will pass him before he’s through. Aaron Rodgers is tied for 43 with 22 game winning drives in his career.
Ryan also doesn’t take a back-seat to Rodgers in other all-time quarterback categories. He’s eighth on the fourth quarter comebacks list with 29, tied with Fran Tarkenton and two behind Elway and Ben Roethlisberger.
Ryan is 4,000 yards ahead of Rodgers on the career passing yards list and they are nearly dead even in net yards per pass attempt. The one area that Rodgers does dominate is in passing touchdowns, 43 more in his career than Ryan.
Still, you can mash up statistics in a number of different ways but Pro Football Reference.com does use a number called "approximate value" to provide a comparison between players over the course of their careers. Rodgers’ career approximate value is 170, Ryan’s is 166.
Rodgers has had the high-profile career, partly because he succeeded Brett Favre, a consensus all-time great, at quarterback in Green Bay. Add that to his leading the Packers to a Super Bowl win in his third season as a starter and you have a recipe for a first-ballet, Hall of Fame quarterback.
Matt Ryan didn’t succeed anyone high-profile and had the rug pulled out from under him in his only Super Bowl appearance (in which he recorded the fourth highest passer rating in Super Bowl history). If he wants to join Rodgers at the legend’s table, he has to go back and come home with the Lombardi Trophy. As Aaron Rodgers has proved, the numbers don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that ring.
