Atlanta Falcons offensive tackle duo a key building block
Although there is a black hole at the center position heading into the offseason, the Atlanta Falcons offensive line showed some improvements in 2015 from years past, and that’s largely thanks to an offensive tackle duo that is quietly becoming one of the better tandems around the league.
After struggling in his first season in the NFL, Atlanta Falcons rookie left tackle Jake Matthews started to look like a franchise blindside protector for Matt Ryan in his second season. Although Matthews didn’t play at a Pro Bowl level or anything like that, he took massive strides forward under new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, though I’m sure most people expected the former Texas A&M star to become an above-average starter at some point in his first three seasons in the league.
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Matthews’s improved play gave the Falcons some much-needed stability on the left side of their offensive line, and Ryan also received plenty of help from right tackle Ryan Schraeder. A quiet out-of-nowhere breakout star in the 2014 season, Schraeder is clearly part of the puzzle in Atlanta, and he’s been arguably their best offensive lineman over the past two seasons.
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Schraeder’s and Matthews’s competent play on either side of the Falcons offensive line helped Ryan finish the 2015 season as the tenth-least sacked quarterback in 2015. It’s one thing to look at total sacks to judge offensive line play, but, as per Pro Football Reference, Ryan was sacked on just 4.7% of his drop-backs. He was sacked just slightly less often than division rival Drew Brees, and, in fact, no quarterback in the NFC South had a lower Sack% than Ryan.
Not everyone on the Falcons offensive line was perfect, and there were some games in which things did look hopeless at points for Ryan, causing some to have flashbacks to previous editions of Atlanta’s line. The Falcons need much better pass blocking out of their interior offensive linemen, particularly at the center position (the team’s second-biggest need on offense behind a No. 2 wide receiver), but the offensive tackles prevented Ryan’s protection from devolving into a major issue for this offense.
While Matthews has to be considered the Falcons most improved player this season- and not just because he had nowhere to go but “up” in his second seasons- it is Schraeder who earned the most praise around the league. From nabbing recognition in Madden Ultimate Team to making Pro Football Focus’s prestigious 2015 All-Pro squad, Schraeder is no longer a “nobody” UDFA offensive lineman from Valdosta State. Instead, he’s just as much of a rising star as Matthews, and he’s only unnoticed now because he does such a good job of keeping opposing pass rushers quiet.
You could even argue that Matthews and Schraeder form one of the NFL’s top five offensive tackle duos behind the Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, and Oakland Raiders. Not many teams have a safe pair of OT bookends, but the Falcons do.
Scarier yet is the fact that the 6’5″, 309-pound Matthews is just 23, and the 6’7″, 300-pound Schraeder is a ripe 27. The latter is in the prime of his career as a borderline Pro Bowl right tackle, whereas the former is on the precipice of becoming one of the NFL’s most important players over the next decade.
Thomas Dimitroff, Dan Quinn, Shanahan, and the rest of the Falcons organization still have to make some tweaks to their offense, because the interior OL has some issues (Chris Chester will be a free agent, by the way) and Roddy White isn’t cutting it as the No. 2 guy.
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That said, they can add their franchise tackle pair to their franchise QB, future Hall of Fame WR, and breakout running back as true building blocks for this offense going forward. Schraeder will be a restricted free agent this offseason, but I would be shocked if he plays elsewhere in 2016.