Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan will play for his fifth different offensive coordinator in 2021, but the former MVP is well-equipped to handle the changes as he enters his 14th NFL season. Ryan talked about transitioning to another system following Wednesday’s practice.
“At this point in my career, it’s probably just the terminology,” stated Ryan. “There’s lots of concepts that are similar. Having run a lot of different schemes, there’s not a ton of new things I have not seen before that are here. It’s just translating that in your head what we’re calling it and being able to regurgitate that out of the huddle so fast.”
Ryan then broke down what the terminology means in regard to personnel formations. He noted that in past systems, sometimes specific formation calls like “train,” tells the formation build from inside out, which could be Z [receiver,], Y [receiver], F [receiver], left to right on the strong side. However, last season under Koetter, “train” meant F, Y, Z. While “train” remains the same wording and grouping, quarterbacks must have the mental fortitude to understand which player is placed where and how the personnel changes.
“Those kind of things that, they don’t sound like much, when you break the huddle and you expect in your head just knowing ‘alright, my F [receiver] is supposed to be here right now. Oh, no, no, no, that’s old train, this is new train, I got to move Kyle in here'”, stated Ryan. “That little stuff just takes a little longer to click.”
Ryan is making sure his young teammates are picking things up as well.
“I quiz these guys all the time, they’ll tell ya, walking around the building,” said Ryan — also noting that the quizzing won’t stop when training camp ends.
Atlanta has plenty of work to do to get back to the postseason in 2021, but the team’s lucky to have an experienced signal-caller like Ryan helping ease the transition.
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