How Matt Ryan can amplify his NFL legacy with the Colts
How would history remember Matt Ryan if the Atlanta Falcons didn't blow that 28-3 lead?
Ryan was the league's MVP in 2016 and maintained that form in Super Bowl LI, when he threw touchdowns on either side of halftime to push Tom Brady's New England Patriots to the brink of embarrassment. A six-yard swing pass to Tevin Coleman gave Atlanta its 25-point edge midway through the third quarter. Ryan raced to mob Coleman in the end zone, justifiably thrilled.
Everyone knows disaster ensued. After the Coleman score, the Falcons punted three times, Ryan lost a fumble while being sacked, and Brady authored TD drives of 75, 25, 91, and 75 yards. New England's 34-28 overtime victory sealed the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and secured the fifth of Brady's seven rings. Like Ryan, the Falcons still own zero.
That's in the past for Ryan, now a 15-year veteran who's embracing fresh challenges at age 37. The Indianapolis Colts swapped a third-round draft pick to acquire him in March, leveling up in an attempt to edge the Tennessee Titans for AFC South supremacy. Few offseason additions were splashier.
Milestones were in reach for Ryan when Indianapolis traded for him. He debuted for his new team on the same afternoon that he joined historic company.
By throwing for 352 yards on Sunday as the Colts rallied to tie the Houston Texans, Ryan became the eighth passer ever to eclipse 60,000 career yards. Only Drew Brees reached the benchmark in fewer games.
The same 10 quarterbacks top the all-time leaderboard for passing touchdowns. Aaron Rodgers vaults Ryan in that category, but the Colts QB is 32 TD throws away from slinging his 400th. Ryan averaged 25.4 TDs in the five seasons that followed his MVP campaign, so it may not happen this year.
By these standards, Ryan is the NFL's third-most productive quarterback to never win a Super Bowl. Time is running short for him to overtake Philip Rivers and Dan Marino - or to win a ring before he retires.
Once a Heisman Trophy contender at Boston College, Ryan won the 2007 Johnny Unitas and Manning awards as the NCAA's top quarterback. The Falcons picked him third overall in 2008, tapping Ryan as the face of the franchise while Michael Vick was imprisoned for dogfighting.
Ryan started immediately and proceeded to dominate his draft class in weighted career approximate value, as tracked by Pro Football Reference. He led Atlanta to three division titles and six playoff trips in 14 seasons.
His chemistry with Julio Jones and Roddy White - those All-Pro wideouts caught 111 (30.2%) of Ryan's TD passes in Atlanta - compensated for some roster holes. Atlanta was a top-10 scoring team in six seasons during the Ryan era but finished in the bottom 10 in points allowed just as many times. The NFL-best offense he guided to Super Bowl LI was undercut by a defense that ranked 19th in DVOA, per Football Outsiders.
Ryan was a decent playoff performer in Atlanta. His passer rating (100.8), completion percentage (67.5%), and adjusted net yards per attempt (6.92) are better than his regular-season career averages, if not the scorching stats he put up at his peak.
At least he lost to worthy opponents. The five NFC teams that bounced Ryan from the playoffs all reached the Super Bowl. Three of them won it.
Moving on from Atlanta could enliven Ryan. While the Falcons rebuild, he gets the chance to finish atop what's supposed to be a weak division - Indianapolis faces the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2 and Week 6, plus Houston again in Week 18. He also has the opportunity to stabilize his new offense. Ryan is the Colts' fifth starting QB in five seasons, stepping into the void that Andrew Luck created by retiring and that Jacoby Brissett, Rivers, and Carson Wentz didn't fill for long.
He inherits young playmakers who broke out in 2021. Michael Pittman Jr. cleared 1,000 receiving yards on 88 catches, while Jonathan Taylor led the league with 1,811 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns. Both players scored Sunday while accounting for 296 total yards from scrimmage.
Meanwhile, when The Ringer's Steven Ruiz rated Ryan the league's 12th-best QB recently, he exalted Ryan's wisdom and steadiness: "(He's) that old dude getting buckets at a YMCA pickup game - only he's a good NFL quarterback."
"He's like gravity," Sam Ehlinger, the Colts' third-string QB, said about Ryan ahead of the season to The Athletic's Zak Keefer. "He's the centerpiece that holds everything together."
Is he a Hall of Famer? Ryan's longevity enhances his case, and he benefits from this era's emphasis on passing.
He's thrown more than twice as many balls (8,053) as Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Roger Staubach, and Terry Bradshaw, Hall of Fame QBs who combined for a dozen NFL titles in bygone decades. Dan Fouts, the Canton honoree who helmed the freewheeling Air Coryell offense through the '70s and '80s, attempted about five fewer passes per game than Ryan.
Empowered to air it out, Ryan, Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger have compiled the numbers to merit gold jackets, according to Pro Football Reference's Hall of Fame Monitor.
This season is his immediate concern, though. Ryan entered Year 15 wanting to reaffirm that he can win, telling reporters before the Houston game, "My motivation is as strong as it's ever been." He threw a pick Sunday and lost one of his four fumbles as the Colts dug a deep deficit, but Ryan hit Pittman on the late curl route that the receiver housed to tie the score.
Ryan raced to the end zone to mob Pittman, justifiably relieved.
Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.