Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan is the most underrated NFL quarterback
After 11 seasons in the NFL, it can be argued that Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan has not received the recognition and praise his play resembles.
Aside from his 2016 campaign in which he led the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl and earned MVP honors along the way, Ryan has routinely been knocked down a peg in conversations about the NFL’s top quarterbacks.
In a recent interview on The Lefkoe Show with Adam Lefkoe, Mina Kimes of ESPN stated:
"“He is the most underrated quarterback in the NFL … by every statistical measure, every advanced metric.”"
Kimes went on to elaborate about the Falcons being a potential surprise team in the NFL this season. It comes as a breath of fresh air to hear a sports writer speak glowingly about Matt Ryan. That’s not to say analysts don’t speak well of Matt Ryan from time to time, but he is typically left out of the top quarterbacks in the NFL debate.
It’s safe to say Matt Ryan had his best season as a pro in 2018. Statistically, he passed for 4,924 yards, 35 touchdown passes to only seven interceptions on a 69.4 completion percentage, numbers very comparable to his MVP season.
If numbers told the story, everyone would believe his 2016 was better. Statistically, yes it was. Only this time around, the Falcons defense encountered a rash of injuries, the offensive line couldn’t find their groove for most of the season and the play calling suffered under former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. It was a season filled with adversity and tough measures than allowed Ryan to step up to the plate once again and show why he is one of the elite quarterbacks in this league.
Quarterbacks often get judged based off of their teams win-loss record and that’s the case with Ryan. It’s not an awful basis for judgment but there are other factors such as intangibles, production and other components to a team that stand as other pillars for grading quarterbacks. Matt Ryan was tabbed as having all the intangibles required for an NFL quarterback coming out of college.
Matt has been tough as nails throughout his career, missing all but two games and enduring a season last year in which he absorbed 42 sacks and was hit another 108 times. Ryan has bounced back admirably from a miserable Super Bowl collapse two years ago. He has accepted coaching from four different offensive coordinators and has been a professional to the ultimate degree since entering the league.
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There really is a very minimal debate about Ryan and his elite status.