Matt Ryan heading to the booth, playing career perhaps over?
Former Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan is heading to CBS as an analyst. Is his playing career officially over? Matt Ryan, 38, recently revealed that he is heading to CBS to join the network as an NFL Analyst, perhaps ending his long playing career.
The former Falcons‘ and Colts‘ has spent 15 years in the NFL; and 14 of them with the Atlanta Falcons, who drafted him with the third overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Matty Ice has enjoyed quite the career, including an MVP award, four Pro Bowls, and over 60,000 passing yards. Honestly, based on how he looked in 2022 with the Colts, my guess is that he won’t see an NFL field again unless there’s a serious QB situation going on with a team.
For example, what if the 49ers continue to endure QB injuries but are still maintaining a playoff position? Could Ryan return then? Perhaps. It may take a lot to get a pure pocket passer pushing 40 years old back on the field but never say never.
The big debate will likely now shift to whether or not Matt Ryan is a Hall of Famer, and to me, the answer is easy.
Yes, he’s a Hall of Famer, and I’m not sure it’s particularly close either.
I don’t understand arguments saying that he shouldn’t end up in Canton. Let’s go over some key information that should help his case.
Ryan ranks 7th all-time in passing yards. Players ranking below him who are in the Hall of Fame include Dan Marino, John Elway, Warren Moon, and Fran Tarkenton.
Ryan ranks 9th all-time in touchdown passes. He ranks ahead of Hall of Fame QBs like Tarkenton, Elway, Moon, Johnny Unitas, and Joe Montana, who are obviously all in the Hall of Fame.
He also ranks 4th all-time in playoff passer rating, above players like Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen, Drew Brees, Joe Montana, and Russell Wilson.
Matt Ryan ranks 14th all-time in wins, with 124.
He also has an MVP award and four Pro Bowls as I previously mentioned. Matt Ryan should have a very solid longevity argument as well. In 15 total seasons, he’s missed just eight games. Out of 242 possible regular season games he’s played and started in 234 of them.
In six of his seasons, he was on teams that won double-digit games in the regular season.
Overall, as a total body of work, there aren’t many QBs who can say they have all the accomplishments that Matt Ryan does.
He’s got the individual accolades, the statistics, and the longevity. I don’t think the 28-3 argument is valid, as I don’t think that was necessarily his fault.
To me, this is a clear-cut Hall of Fame player.