Matt Ryan Waits for His Time

By Curtis Stoychoff

Matt Ryan prepares to be interviewed after a game.

The twenty-seven year old from Exton, Pennsylvania walked into his team's locker room with a heart full of discontent and a head full of questions.

Matt Ryan, the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, made his fourth trip into the playoffs this season, and for the first time, came away with a victory. The Falcons were victories in the divisional round against the Seattle Seahawks where they came away with a thrilling 30-28 win. Before this season, Ryan’s ability to win games when it mattered had been called into question. Everyone said that since he had been to the playoffs three times and had been yet to win a game that he simply didn’t have it in him to do so. He proved those people wrong. He went out and won a game in the playoffs. That isn’t good enough for “Matty Ice” as he is called. He didn’t just want to win one game in the playoffs; he wanted to win them all.

Unfortunately, the playoffs didn’t pan out that way for Ryan. He and the Falcons suffered a heart-breaking 28-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the Conference Championship game after having a 17-0 lead in the first half. As he made his way into the locker room after the loss he must have been full of questions. “Am I good enough?” “Are all those people right?” “Do I really not have what it takes?” These are all plausible examples of questions that Ryan could have been asking himself. Although, just because they are plausible doesn’t mean that he should be asking them. No, he hasn’t won a Super Bowl yet. No, he hasn’t even made it to the Super Bowl as the Falcons Quarterback. But he has accomplished a lot. Just take a look at his stats from his first five seasons. http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/11237/matt-ryan

Not too shabby, huh? Ryan has done nothing but win in the regular season since he arrived in Atalnta in 2008. Only a few teams like Tom Brady and the Patriots rival his record in that time period. So then why is he not considered to be an elite quarterback in the NFL along with Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers? If it were only about stats he certainly would be. In 2012, Ryan was fifth in passer rating, touchdown passes, and passing yards. He was fourth in total QBR, which is a new way of determining the performance of quarterbacks in all phases of the game. Ryan finished third in total completions and he beat everyone with the best completion percentage out of all other quarterbacks. With these kinds of numbers, why is he not talked about with the rest of the best?

The answer is because it is not all about the numbers. What you do with those numbers is also taken into consideration. Ryan is yet to win a Super Bowl in his five seasons. And what do Brady, Manning, Brees, and Rodgers have in common? Rings. Super Bowl rings.

With the kind of stats Ryan has it is only a matter of time before he breaks through and gets that first super bowl win. In the time being, lurking in the shadows of Brady and the others will have to do. All Ryan needs to do is stay patient, determined, and true to himself and when his time comes, it’ll be all the more satisfying.

Ryan celebrates during a game.