5 Former Atlanta Falcons to watch closely this season

4. Matt Ryan

If you polled Atlanta Falcons fans on the one team they wanted to see win a Super Bowl outside of their Falcons an overwhelming majority would be pulling for Matt Ryan and the Colts. Ryan spent fourteen years in Atlanta often dealing with a bad defense and a poor offensive line. The only thing Ryan was given consistently before last season was weapons to work with.

While there should be some questions about their group of receivers the Colts have everything else and will give Ryan an elite run game he didn’t have in Atlanta. Ryan winning a ring outside of Atlanta while painful would be a great story for a player who deserves to finally win it all in the final years of his career.

It is also worth pointing out that Ryan didn’t want to leave Atlanta before the franchise chose to chase Deshaun Watson this off-season. This speaks to his loyalty to a franchise that just finished up a season where Ryan had few weapons and was put in front of an offensive line who allowed the veteran to be under constant fire and lead the league in quarterback hits taken.

Ryan has long been underappreciated that could change this season with a capable front office and a team set up to support the former Falcon.