Re-Signing Matt Bryant was Brilliant
By Adnan Ikic
As the snow hit metro Atlanta and North Georgia on Wednesday, headlines were dominated by school closings, potentially icy rodes, and even talk of Snowmageddon 2.0. Because of this “snow storm” some major news regarding the Falcons went completely overlooked: and that’s the re-signing of Matt Bryant, to a new three year deal.
It’s maybe the most underrated move the Falcons will make this offseason, but it’s also one of the most important. Matt Bryant was the number one player to re-sign on, ESPN Falcons Reporter, Vaughn Mcclure’s list of top 5 Falcons to bring back, and he was also personally my number one player to re-sign as well. Bryant was Atlanta’s most consistent player last season, and one of the most important, playing one of the most overlooked positions in football.
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Bryant was the best kicker in the entire NFL last season, showing off great range and consistency. He had Pro Football Focus’ highest rating for Field Goals/Extra Points with a +9.8 mark overall; this is substantially higher than second place Dan Bailey, who had a +6.7 rating.
Among kickers who had 25 or more field goal attempts, Matt Bryant had the third highest field goal percentage (90.6%), behind only New England’s Stephen Gostowski (94.6%) and Indianapolis’ Adam Vinateri (96.8%). However, Gostowski only attempted one kick beyond 49 yards all season, and Vinateri attempted just three from that distance; Matt Bryant on the other hand, attempted an NFL best 10 kicks of 50 yards or more, and he made an NFL best 7 of those kicks. He and Baltimore’s Justin Tucker are also the only kickers in the NFL to have made all of their kicks inside 50 yards (Tucker was 4-9 on Field Goals from 50+ yards however).
Matt Bryant was signed as a free agent on December 1st 2009, to replace the struggling Jason Elam, as Atlanta’s kicker. Since then he’s made big kick after kick, converting on 88.6% of his field goals in a Falcons uniform (148 of 156), while also finishing off most of Matt Ryan’s game tying or game winning 4th quarter drives. His biggest kick in his time with the Falcons was undoubtedly the game winning field goal in the 2012 NFC Divisional round of the playoffs against the Seattle Seahawks. Bryant is also just 140 points shy of getting to Morten Anderson’s club record of 806. We look forward to three more years of big kicks from the other Mattie Ice.