Atlanta Falcons: Next head coach has to be honest with Matt Ryan

There is enough blame to go around for the Atlanta Falcons.

When you have had three straight losing seasons like the Atlanta Falcons, it is easy to blame some but not others. However, there is plenty of blame from the top to the bottom of this franchise.

There are many people, myself included, that think players like Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are the exceptions to criticism and blame when it comes to the downfall of the NFL – especially Matt Ryan.

He is the leader of this franchise and he has always embraced and accepted that role. When things go right he deflects credit to all of his teammates and when things go bad, he accepts responsibility and never implicates others.

However, what is clear 10 games this year is Matt Ryan has to either re-invent himself or he needs to realize this his days as a starter are numbered and prepare himself to be a backup.

We have seen from Tom Brady and Drew Brees over the last few years that older quarterbacks can reinvent who they are and offenses can change to take advantage of what a quarterback still has left We make fun of the Saints for checking down, but Tom Brady has done this for years and won two Super Bowls doing so.

If the Atlanta Falcons are not ready to move on from Matt Ryan yet, they need to bring in an offensive mind that can create a faster offensive that will take advantage of what skillset Ryan has left in addition to the rest of the talent on offense.

The most alarming stat from last week’s game against the Saints was Matt Ryan being sacked eight times.

Casual fans will always blame the offensive line but tape shows and interim head coach Raheem Morris verified that just three of the eight sacks were on the offensive line. The other five – wide receivers are unable to get open resulting in coverage sacks and Matt Ryan holding on to the ball too long.

How do you remedy that?

You create three steps and out type offense that Josh McDaniels has run in New England for most last six years as former quarterback Tom Brady was getting older.

Matt Ryan isn’t going to suddenly become more mobile overnight nor is his arm strength going to come back as he continues to get older.

If Matt Ryan is going to continue to be the starting quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, their next head coach and offensive coordinator have to do a much better job of identifying his strengths and what he can do best in order to help this team move forward because what he is doing now isn’t it.