Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is ready for his 14th NFL season, and his team is at a crossroad. Ryan has led the NFL in completions in each of the last two seasons, and the Falcons have won a combined 11 games over that time. Many of Atlanta’s losses have been of the bizarre variety, and though the Falcons were better than their 4-12 record indicated, change came all over the place in the offseason. Former Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is now the head coach and offensive shot-caller, veteran Dean Pees came out of retirement to run the defense, and Julio Jones was off to Tennessee in a trade.
The team restructured Ryan’s contract in March, pushing his cap hits into the 2022 and 2023 with some rather large cap hits at that time. And while the team sent representatives to just about every draftable quarterback’s pro day before the 2021 draft, Ryan’s still the guy under center. He continues to earn it — last season, he ranked 15th in DVOA and 10th in DYAR in an offense that lost Jones for seven games and wasn’t always as dynamic as it could have been. The hope is that with Calvin Ridley as his No. 1 receiver (which Ridley has proven he can be) and the addition of Florida’s Kyle Pitts, the highest-drafted tight end in pro football history, all will be right again with Ryan and Atlanta’s offense.
Recently, I reviewed several of Ryan’s 2020 plays with him, and found that he’s quite excited about this offense. He was also interested in discussing his current promotion with Tide.
Doug Farrar: Tell me about your partnership with Tide, the commercial you recently shot with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Ice-T, and why this sponsorship makes sense for you.
Matt Ryan: It was a lot of fun shooting the commercial with Stone Cold and Ice-T, two guys… I grew up watching Stone Cold, and listening to Ice-T and watching him on Law & Order. It was cool to meet those guys, and I’m excited to partner up with Tide, which has partnered with the NFL to get everyone to switch to cold-water washing. It’s great for the environment, which is really good, and it saves money, which is really good. I’m a father of twin boys who are 3 1/2 years old, so our washing machine is constantly running at the house. Anytime you can do something that saves you a little bit of money, and reduced energy use, which is good for the planet, it seemed like a no-brainer to partner up with them, and I’m excited about it.
DF: You’re probably not getting a lot of sleep right now, either!
MR: A little bit of sleep. They’re starting to sleep for us right now, which is good.
DF: Well, let’s talk some ball. You have a new head coach and offensive play-designer in Arthur Smith. In his preference during his time as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator for two- and three-tight sets, play-action, boot-action, and pre-snap motion, Smith reminds me a bit of a guy named Kyle Shanahan, who helped you win the NFL MVP award in 2016. Do you see any similarities there?
MR: Yeah, I think there are definitely similarities. I think they go about it in different ways, and in certain schemes that they use. But I think the belief in getting the run game going, and putting a lot of mental stress on the defense in terms of motioning pre-snap and giving you a lot of similar looks before the ball is snapped and making things look the same, run and pass, I think both of those guys believe in that. I certainly have played some of my best football in situations like that, so I feel really good about it.
DF: What you said about making everything look the same, run and pass, pre-snap… that seems to be more of a hallmark of modern offenses than it used to be. Sean McVay does that a lot, and I know it was a big part of Doug Pederson’s offenses in Philadelphia. Do you think that’s expanded as an idea in the last few seasons at the NFL level?
MR: Yeah, I do think so. I think that innovations in play-action protection really marry into the run game, and that’s gotten a lot better in the last handful of years. It puts a lot of stress on linebackers and nickel players to fit the run, because they’ve got responsibilities to fit the run, but it kind of exposes them in certain spots where you’re able to get the ball out with the play-action pass to get behind some of those zones that are voided. So, I do think it’s improved a lot in the last eight years… something like that. There’s been a heavier emphasis on those types of plays.
DF: Nickel is the new base, as you know.
MR: Correct.
DF: Speaking of pre-snap motion, there’s an interesting statistical thing about your recent career — over the last five years, per Football Outsiders, your pre-snap motion rate has decreased, and you average fewer yards per play when using pre-snap motion, and this goes back even to the Shanahan days. It’s unusual when motion is generally a cheat code for quarterbacks. Have you researched that, and do you have any thoughts as to why that is?
MR: [Laughs] No! If you think about the last four years, it’s been a lot of [offensive coordinators] Steve Sarkisian and Dirk Koetter, and I think both those guys had a little bit of a different flavor in what they do. I think that the motion portion of it is a big part of putting mental stress on defenses. I think you’ll see more of that moving forward.
DF: Last season, the Falcons finished 4-12, but you ranked 16th in offense, 19th in defense, and 17th in Total DVOA, which would indicate that you were better than your record says. How encouraged are you about the team’s prospects for the 2021 season with that new look on offense, and the addition of defensive coordinator Dean Pees, who’s quite the genius?
MR: I’m fired up. Last year, I don’t know how many games it was, but we had a lot of games last year, where… the ball didn’t bounce the way we needed it to.
DF: Yeah, to an agonizing degree.
MR: Yeah, for sure. And it’s tough when you’re going through that stuff. I do think that we’ve got the players in the building that are capable of being successful. We’ve got guys who are working really hard. We’ve got a really good coaching staff. So, I’m excited about it, and I think that sometimes, when things don’t go your way, you’ve just got to stay the course, and keep your head down, and keep working at it. Eventually, that luck starts to go in your direction. It starts to turn the tide in your favor.
DF: With that, let’s get to the tape.