Matt Ryan discusses relationship with Kyle Shanahan, joining CBS Sports

Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan recently made a big announcement about his career. He took to social media to inform everyone that he would be joining CBS Sports as an NFL Analyst, while also keeping the door open on his playing career if the right situation presents itself.

Ryan has also opened himself up and discussed his playing career with Audacy's 'Take Command' podcast. He also gave some interesting insights into what it was like playing for Kyle Shanahan who helped Ryan orchestrate a historic offense that led them all the way to Super Bowl LI then goes on to discuss what it has been like joining CBS Sports.

Matt Ryan talks about having Kyle Shanahan as a coach, as well as his new job at CBS Sports

Matt Ryan has put together a Hall of Fame-worthy NFL career and could continue adding to his accolades should the right opportunity present itself. For now, though, he will be transitioning to the media portion of the NFL as both an analyst and announcer for CBS Sports.

Matt Ryan's career with the Atlanta Falcons was widely successful and included a season where he helped lead one of the greatest offenses the NFL has ever seen. Kyle Shanahan also played a huge role in their success.

Shanahan has widely been known to have a personality that requires some getting used to and Matt Ryan certainly backed that up with some of the things he said when he joined the 'Take Command' podcast.

"Number one, the thing I always appreciated about (Kyle Shanahan) is you knew exactly where he stood. There was no gray area. There was zero gray area of how he felt. I always appreciated that... As a player, you want honesty back. All I want is for you to put me in a position to be successful and I want to play my best. I think that he pushed me to get better. He pushed me outside of my comfort zone. There was a lot of stuff early on, I was like ‘Hey, I’ve never really done that in my career. I haven’t specialized in this but we’ve done more of this.' He just goes, ‘I don’t care, Matt, you can. I don’t care what you’ve done, I know what you can do,’ and pushed me to get better. I appreciated him for that."

- Matt Ryan

I think everyone already knew this but this proves further that Kyle Shanahan has an extremely complex playbook and a playbook that has proven itself to be nearly impossible to stop. Ryan goes on to discuss the intensity both of them have.

"We had this meeting in the offseason between my first and second year with him, and we came to the agreement that we both just had to let it out. We would have the meetings up in the offensive coordinator spot on the second floor of Flowery Branch where he’d be on my a–, getting after me, and I’d be going back at him.
I’d be leaving I’d be like ‘Man, that was intense. Hopefully, it’s all good tomorrow.’ Then he’d call me on the ride home and he’d be like ‘Dude, that was awesome; exactly what we needed. We’re in a great spot for install tomorrow.’ And I was like alright, we’re good. It turned into a really great relationship. I enjoyed playing for him. But we were both headstrong and both had great belief in what we were doing. I really think we both pushed each other to be the best versions of ourselves."

Some of the things said in that quote sound exactly like what former Patriots players said about team meetings with Bill Belichick. Players have constantly stated that no one was safe from getting chewed out by Belichick, including Tom Brady—I guess there is a reason those two teams met in the Super Bowl.

Anyways, back to the good guy, Matt Ryan goes on to further illustrate what drove him to join CBS Sports and what the experience has been like thus far.

"The opportunity that CBS has given me to do a little bit of everything, to me, it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. It gives me a chance to find out number one, what I’m OK at, what I’m decent at. And number two, what I’m interested in... Whether that be being in the studio or calling games. The unique setup of the opportunity intrigued me. The people that I have the opportunity to learn from while I’m up there whether it be in New York or whether it be calling games. All of the stars aligned for it.
I’ve learned throughout my NFL career that a lot of crazy things can happen during the season. A lot of weird things can go on. So keeping options available and just being prudent with that I thought was the right way to go... We’ll see how it shakes out in terms of the football side of it but I’m excited to start working with the folks at CBS and to start diving into this next chapter.
The ability to do both this first year and really get a feel for what makes sense long-term, I feel lucky... I feel a bit like a kid going to college where I have no idea what my major is going to be but I get to take a bunch of those courses and begin to figure out what I like and go from there.”
"

Make sure to go listen to the entire episode [Matt Ryan's segment begins ~00:19:00]: