Tag: Matt Ryan

Taysom Hill’s 30-yard touchdown is the Saints Play of Day 30

There are 30 days left until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 season, and Taysom Hill’s 30-yard touchdown is our Saints Play of the Day:

There are 30 days left until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 season, and Taysom Hill’s 30-yard touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons in 2019 is our Saints Play of the Day. All of America was watching with this rivalry game capping the Thanksgiving Day slate.

Holding onto a 10-6 lead at the two-minute warning, Hill helped extend the Saints’ margins by barreling into the end zone for another score before halftime. He took the direct snap out of shotgun and followed his blockers as they opened a lane in the middle of the Atlanta defense. Then it became a footrace as Hill outran multiple Falcons defenders for the 30-yard touchdown.

This ended up being a big game for Hill. He also caught Drew Brees’ lone touchdown pass on the evening, accounting for 12 of the team’s 26 points on his own. Wil Lutz scored the other 14 on each of the point-after attempts and four field goals from distances of 22, 42, 45, and 47 yards.

But the real story lies with the Saints defense. They had the Falcons offense locked up all throughout the game. Matt Ryan was sacked nine times, including the first play from scrimmage. He was sacked four times on Atlanta’s final possession though one of them was wiped out by a New Orleans penalty (but Ryan still felt it, and was sacked again on the next play). Defensive tackle Shy Tuttle intercepted Ryan and threw him into the turf on the return, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson gained 28 yards after picking Ryan off on third down later on. The Falcons’ longest play from scrimmage gained just 23 yards.

This 26-18 victory in Atlanta went down as another memorable holiday game for the Saints, and another entry in their long-running rivalry with the dirty birds. And it wouldn’t have happened without Hill.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5]

Former Super Bowl opponent attends Patriots practice on Friday

The Patriots had a special guest at Friday’s training camp practice

Former longtime Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was a special guest at the New England Patriots training camp practice on Friday.

Ryan, a former Boston College quarterback, returned to his old stomping grounds to watch the new-look Patriots prepare for the regular season. He particularly looked interested in the rebuilt quarterback room.

The team shipped Mac Jones off in a trade in the offseason, signed veteran Jacoby Brissett and drafted both Drake Maye and Joe Milton III. Bailey Zappe is the only quarterback left standing from the Bill Belichick era.

That’s an era Ryan knows too well. It’s the era that housed legendary quarterback Tom Brady, who led the Patriots back from a 28-3 deficit to beat Ryan and the Falcons and win Super Bowl LI.

But this wasn’t about pouring salt on old wounds. Ryan being at practice and talking to the Patriots’ quarterbacks was beneficial. If only for a few minutes, who wouldn’t want to pick the brain of a former NFL MVP and four-time Pro Bowl quarterback?

Ryan was the No. 3 overall pick of the 2008 NFL draft by the Falcons. He could probably relate a lot to what Maye is going through right now.

But he’s also proof that special and unexpected things can come from hard work and opportunity.

Titans’ Calvin Ridley compares Will Levis to former NFL MVP

The Titans’ new star WR sees big things in Will Levis.

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Calvin Ridley has seen enough in how second-year quarterback Will Levis goes about his preparation, so much that he is ready to compare him to former teammate and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.

Ridley spoke with reporters following Wednesday’s Day 1 of training camp, and the Titans wideout had high praise for the second-year quarterback.

“Will (Levis) is doing everything. I played with Matt Ryan; Will’s doing the same thing that “Ice” (Ryan) did,” Ridley said via ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “He’s ready to work. He’s not satisfied with bull***. He wants it to be good. We want to work to get better so that when the games come, we look good.”

Ridley, who signed a three-year contract in free agency, played with Ryan for four seasons in Atlanta. During that time, the wide receiver hauled in 248 receptions for 3,342 yards, including a season-high 1,374 yards during the 2020 season.

Ridley knows the offseason preparation that is required for an NFL quarterback. It’s nice to see him recognize that in Levis, despite how young he is. The Kentucky product had a mixed rookie campaign, posting a 3-6 record and throwing for 1,808 with a 58.4 percent completion rate in nine games last year.

Earlier in the offseason, Levis and several of his teammates, including Ridley, worked out in Cabo, Mexico, to build some chemistry. The young quarterback was also the first one in the Titans’ parking lot on Tuesday, ahead of players reporting to training camp.

Levis is doing (and saying) all of the right things leading up to camp and the preseason. Now, it really just comes down to execution.

The Falcons surprised Matt Ryan with news he’d made the team’s Ring of Honor in such a cool way

This was such a neat moment for Matt Ryan and the Falcons.

The Atlanta Falcons found an awesome way to break the news to Matt Ryan that he’d been inducted in the franchise’s Ring of Honor.

Falcons coach Raheem Morris staged a clever ruse to invite Ryan to speak to the team about what it means to be a Falcon this week, which he did in elaborate detail.

After Ryan’s talk, Morris shared the exciting news with the retired quarterback as the room got up and applauded perhaps the best player to ever sport a Falcons uniform.

This was such a cool moment for Ryan and the Falcons, as he’ll now be enshrined in the team’s history permanently.

Team owner Arthur Blank was also surprised with the same news, making this a very special week for the franchise.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1371]

WATCH: Falcons surprise Matt Ryan with Ring of Honor induction

WATCH: The Falcons surprised Matt Ryan with his Ring of Honor induction

Things didn’t end well between the Atlanta Falcons and Matt Ryan following his 14th season as the team’s starting quarterback. The former league MVP was traded to the Indianapolis Colts during the 2022 offseason in a move that shocked fans.

However, Ryan and the team have since mended their relationship. On Tuesday, the Falcons announced plans to induct Ryan and team owner Arthur Blank into their Ring of Honor this season.

“Meant the world to me to be the QB of the Atlanta Falcons for 14 seasons,” Ryan said in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon. “Honored and humbled to be inducted into the Ring of Honor. Thank you to Mr. Blank and the entire organization.”

The Falcons asked Ryan to come in to speak with the team but surprised him with his Ring of Honor induction. Watch the video below, as shared by the team’s Twitter account:

Over his 14 seasons in Atlanta, Ryan passed for 59,735 yards and 367 touchdowns while accumulating a record of 120-102. The former Boston College star racked up some impressive accolades during his time with the Falcons.

In 2008, Ryan was named the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and later won a league MVP award in 2016. Plus, he made four Pro Bowls and one All-Pro team during his 14 years as Atlanta’s starting QB.

The Falcons will officially induct Ryan during their Week 5 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Check out how fans on Twitter reacted to the news HERE!

[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1360]

Matt Ryan: ‘Sky is the limit’ for Packers QB Jordan Love after ‘great first year’

Former NFL MVP quarterback Matt Ryan loved how Jordan Love played as a first-year starter, believes experience will help get the Green Bay Packers quarterback to the next level and is high on the group of wide receivers built around Love entering the 2024 season. 

Former NFL MVP quarterback Matt Ryan loved how Jordan Love played as a first-year starter, believes experience will help get the Green Bay Packers quarterback to the next level and is high on the group of wide receivers built around Love entering the 2024 season.

Ryan, who now works at CBS as an analyst, said he thought Love had a “great first year” in 2023. Love threw 32 touchdown passes against only 11 interceptions and led the Packers to the postseason in the first year of the post-Aaron Rodgers era in Green Bay.

So, what’s next for Love?

“The space where he takes the next steps is just cleaning up the little things, down in and down out,” Ryan said, via Alex Strouf of ESPN Milwaukee. “I think that’s going to come with experience. Having all that film to watch from last year, just cleaning up some of the simple things. Being a little more consistent. If he can do that, the sky is the limit.”

Ryan was the analyst for the broadcast of the Packers’ loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in December of last season. While a frustrating performance overall from Matt LaFleur’s team, Ryan said he saw throws from Love that reminded him of Rodgers.

“He made a couple throws during that game that reminded me so much of Aaron,” Ryan said. “The ability to move outside the pocket, to throw from off platform situations and deliver the ball with the velocity and accuracy that he did, I was really impressed.”

Ryan is almost certainly remembering Love’s incredible third-down touchdown pass to Jayden Reed while buying time and moving to his right against the Bucs.

Speaking of Reed, Ryan is a big fan of the young receivers — see: Reed, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks — built around Love as a young quarterback. He was impressed studying the group before the Bucs game.

“They jumped off the tape. The speed and explosiveness that they have. They’ve done a great job of putting pieces around him to be successful,” Ryan said.

Ryan, the NFL MVP in 2016, was in Wisconsin as part of the 2024 AmFam Championship Celebrity Foursome. He played alongside Andy North, Michael Phelps and Pat Connaughton at the University Ridge Golf Course in Madison. Ryan retired from football following the 2022 season.

Former Boston Celtics sharpshooter Matt Ryan inks new deal with the New Orleans Pelicans

Ryan got his start as an undrafted free agent who signed with the Celtics in 2022, playing a single game with the team that season.

Former Boston Celtics sharpshooting wing Matt Ryan is solidifying his place in the NBA, having earned himself a new, multi-year contract with his current ball club, the New Orleans Pelicans, according to recent reporting from HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto.

The White Plains, New York native had the best season of his career since joining the league in 2021, putting up 5.4 points and 1.4 rebounds per game with the Pelicans in the 2023-24 regular season while shooting a sizzling 45.1% from beyond the arc. Per Scotto, his new contract is “a 3-year, $6.1 million deal, which is guaranteed for $1.5 million this season, non-guaranteed for the 2024-25 season, and includes a team option for the 2025-26 season.”

Ryan got his start as an undrafted free agent who signed with the Celtics in 2022, playing a single game with the team that season.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=590969556]

Matt Ryan should absolutely make the Pro Football Hall of Fame after his legendary Falcons career

Matt Ryan should absolutely make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

With news of his retirement, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan will receive a hero’s welcome in the city where he made his legend.

Will Canton, Ohio, respond accordingly in five years or so? At least in a world where the Pro Football Hall of Fame functions like you want it to, it absolutely should.

Ryan will live eternal in Mercedes-Benz Stadium; there’s no questioning that. He’s arguably the greatest Falcon to ever play for the franchise, perhaps only challenged by the best player he ever threw a ball to in wide receiver Julio Jones. Those two are locked-in on a Falcons Mt. Rushmore.

That quarterback-receiver combination was truly lethal for opposing defenses, particularly in that outstanding 2016 season where Ryan won MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. It was the greatest season in franchise history, one that firmly established Ryan as one of the greats of his generation and gave Atlanta its second NFC title for the final game of the now-demolished Georgia Dome.

Of course, the game after that was Super Bowl 51, the worst collapse for a team in NFL championship history and the game that Ryan will perhaps be attached to before any other in his career, although truly at very little fault of his own. The 28-3 memes will follow anyone even remotely associated with Falcons football until the end of time, but we’re a play or two away in that game with Ryan sporting a ring on his finger and his Hall of Fame bona fides basically unquestioned in the grander football conversation.

Ryan’s absolute excellence on the field towers above his lack of a championship. He was second behind New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees in the 2010s for total passing yards (44,830) and fifth in total touchdowns (er, yes, 283). He was fourth in total yards per game over the decade. He also nearly threw for 5,000 yards in 2016 (4,944).

Ryan was a four-time Pro Bowler, a first-team All-Pro quarterback in 2016 and won the NFL’s Rookie of the Year honor in 2008. Despite seven losing seasons over his tenure, he still finished his 15-year career with a 124-109-1 record overall as a starter, even if quarterback wins aren’t always the best metric to judge someone’s performance.

The quarterbacks he’s listed around in those statistics include Brees, Philip Rivers, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers.

Since 2004, the quarterbacks who join Ryan as MVPs are Brady, Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Cam Newton, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. That’s pretty elite company, don’t you think?

Statistically, Ryan is a Hall of Fame quarterback. His dominance during the 2010s wasn’t always matched by how good his Falcons teams were, but those struggles often overshadowed how reliable and tactical Ryan was on game days. It wasn’t ever really his fault when the Atlanta offensive lines couldn’t hold or the defenses coughed up leads that Ryan’s offenses built.

Plus, consider the legacy Ryan leaves behind in Atlanta. Going into the 2008 NFL Draft, the Falcons were in shambles coming off the 4-12 nightmare season where coach Bobby Petrino bailed out on the team before the season ended for a job at Arkansas. The franchise had just lost Michael Vick to his dog-fighting scandal, too. It could’ve been years before wins came.

However, Ryan’s arrival sparked an instant revival for the franchise as the team went 11-5 that fall and made it to the NFC wild-card round. What followed was the best stretch of football in Falcons history, capped by the 2012 season where the Falcons fell a play or two short of making a Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49ers.

The 2013 and 2014 seasons came with high hopes but diminished returns, but Ryan still played his heart out, like a truly elite quarterback among his peers. It took a season in 2015 for Ryan and new Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan to figure each other out, but the year to follow changed both of their careers forever. It’s the year that hypothetically should cement Ryan in the Hall of Fame as one of the greats of the game.

Ryan’s career is singular among his peers. If one or two moments go differently in Super Bowl 51, he’s got the Super Bowl win we so often judge quarterbacks by instead of the lifetime of jokes that come unfairly at his expense. However, his retirement should highlight just how colossal his memory looms over the Falcons franchise. He is one of one in Atlanta.

For the Pro Football Hall of Fame, that should matter. As it seeks to recognize the greats in football history, Ryan should earn a gold jacket once he’s eligible. He represents everything good about one of the NFL’s 32 teams, and he produced at the same level as the great quarterbacks of his generation.

Super Bowl ring or not, Ryan’s career should be capped with a proud statue outside of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a jersey retired in the Atlanta rafters and, ultimately, a bust in Canton.

It’s what’s right for one of the game’s most underappreciated players, someone who played so well for so long without a lot of recognition for just how special his career was when he was needed the most.

Ryan saved the Falcons, and, if all is just in this process, his career should be recognized one day with football’s most revered honor.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1371]

WATCH: Matt Ryan holds retirement press conference in Atlanta

WATCH: Matt Ryan holds retirement press conference in Atlanta after signing 1-day contract with Falcons

Former Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan signed a one-day contract in Atlanta before officially retiring from the NFL on Monday afternoon. Ryan is currently holding a press conference in Atlanta with team owner Arthur Blank.

Watch the full press conference live, as shared by the team’s Twitter account below:

[gambcom-standard rankid=”5375″ ]

Ex-Falcons QB Matt Ryan reflects on lack of appreciation from fans

Ex-Falcons QB Matt Ryan reflected on his lack of appreciation from fans during an interview with Cam Newton

Where does former Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan rank among the greatest players at his position? On a statistical level, Ryan has the seventh-most passing yards (62,792) in NFL history and ranks ninth all-time in touchdown passes (381).

Despite his on-field accomplishments in Atlanta, Ryan’s efforts weren’t always appreciated by the Falcons fan base. During an interview with Cam Newton, Ryan was asked whether or not he felt appreciated by the fans during his 14-year run in Atlanta.

“The short answer, is probably no,” said Ryan. “But, at the same time, I’m proud of what I did, and the time that I spent there. I think there was a level of consistency that we provided. The division was a juggernaut.”

Newton, an Atlanta, native, said he brought the topic up because he felt Ryan hasn’t received the respect he deserves.

“But the reason why I ask that question — a native of Atlanta,” said Newton. “I went through the transition from the Michael Vick to Matt Ryan, and I will say I don’t think you do have the measure of respect of the body of work that you did.”

The two went on to discuss the philanthropic work that Ryan has done throughout the city of Atlanta, even after leaving the organization in 2022. However, the biggest issue many have with Ryan is the fact that he was part of the team’s Super Bowl collapse.

Obviously, a loss like that stays with you, but Ryan doesn’t deserve to have his entire legacy tarnished over the result of a game in which he performed extremely well. Ryan completed 17 of 23 pass attempts for 284 yards, two touchdowns and a passer rating of 144.1 in that fateful loss to the Patriots.