In one way, the Falcons’ new bosses were transparent with Matt Ryan ahead of April 29, telling the 13-year vet that they’d look at all positions—quarterback included—with the fourth pick in the draft.
In another way, they really weren’t. Coach Arthur Smith and GM Terry Fontenot were front-and-center at pro days for Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Mac Jones (and brought offensive coordinator Dave Ragone with them), and did all the same work the Jaguars, Jets, Niners, Bears and Patriots did before taking those quarterbacks in the first round.
The idea, of course, was for the Falcons to know exactly what they were passing on if they chose to take one of those guys at No. 4. And if a nice byproduct for Smith and Fontenot was keeping the rest of the league in the dark, well, then it worked on Ryan too. Because he didn’t have any more of an idea what was written on Atlanta’s card when it was turned in around 9 p.m. ET than anyone else watching at home.
“When the pick went in, that was the big [moment],” Ryan said the other day, over the phone. “To the organization’s credit, they were very up-front about that from the start— . And they said they had a lot of belief and all those things, but they were up-front from the start about that. So I knew when Kyle got drafted that Kyle got drafted.”
Kyle, of course, is Kyle Pitts, the freaky tight end the Falcons took to help Ryan—rather than selecting someone meant to replace him. He was the first nonquarterback to get picked and, as you’d expect, the pick brought a mixture of excitement and relief to the Ryan living room, and maybe even more so from other family members than the venerable Atlanta quarterback himself.
“I was fired up!” Ryan said, with his voice rising. “I mean, I watched this guy play through college, so it was like, I was watching it with my wife, and I think she was probably more fired up than me.”
That Ryan’s wife got a chance to exhale in a “we probably won’t have to move soon now” sort of way is totally understandable.
That said, to be fair, it would also be understandable if Ryan had taken any of this personally. Everyone would get it if he was a little put off by seeing the Falcons’ open flirtations with quarterbacks 14 and 15 years his junior. No one would be surprised if, over the last three months, with all this happening, Ryan started to eye the exit, because we’ve seen that from so many other quarterbacks the last six months.
But Ryan’s approach to the whole thing was just different. And he’s excited now coming out of all of it, and thinking that the new guys in charge who told him what they were doing, while not really telling him what they were doing, have a good shot to set him up for another run of title shots with his career hitting the fourth quarter.
