Matt Ryan is anything but indispensable for the Atlanta Falcons

Is Matt Ryan “indispensable” for the Atlanta Falcons?

Former Atlanta Falcons radio sideline reporter and Atlanta area morning host John Michaels posted a list on Twitter this morning with his “10 most indispensable players around Georgia sports” and he had both Matt Ryan and Grady Jarrett listed among the 10.

However, is Matt Ryan really “indispensable”?

To be indispensable, a person is absolutely necessary to a situation and in this case, Matty Ice would have to be absolutely necessary for the Atlanta Falcons. Five years ago Matt Ryan would have been number one on this list for nearly every Atlanta Falcons fan, today it’s not even close.

Half of Atlanta would argue that he is indispensable while the other half would pack his bags for him and pool their money to pay his relocation fees.

The answer though comes from results on the field and not from personal feelings.

Matt Ryan is the best player that this franchise has ever had – regardless of position. He owns every passing record a quarterback can have for the Falcons as well as the record for wins, post-season wins, and post-season appearances – among dozens of other franchise and NFL records.

He is among the best performing quarterbacks ever in NFL post-season history and has one of the best Super Bowl performances ever recorded. Matt is a first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback and that is not going to change.

However, Matt is going to be 35 and over the last three seasons, the Atlanta Falcons are 18-30 with him and 57-71 over the last eight seasons – including a 4-12 season in 2020.

No, Matt Ryan is not the problem – however, he also is not the solution. Because he is neither of these things, he is anything but “indispensable” at this point in his career.

Yes, Matt Ryan is going to be here for at least another few seasons and yes the majority of us at Blogging Dirty want Matt Ryan to finish his career here in Atlanta, but that does not make him indispensable either.

There are two “indispensable” players here in Atlanta – Grady Jarrett and AJ Terrell.

Grady is among the Top 4 at his position and AJ Terrell was the best rookie corner in the 2020 NFL Draft and showed a ton of growth and promise week in and week out last season.

Those are two cornerstone guys that Terry Fontenot and Arthur Smith will build around which makes them absolutely necessary for the immediate and long-term success of the Atlanta Falcons franchise.