Matt Ryan (American football)

Infobox NFLactive
name=Matt Ryan


caption =
currentteam=Atlanta Falcons
currentnumber= 2
currentposition=Quarterback
|birthdate=birth date and age|1985|5|17
birthplace=Exton, Pennsylvania
heightft=6
heightin=4
weight=220
debutyear=2008
debutteam=Atlanta Falcons
college=Boston College
draftyear=2008
draftround=1
draftpick=3
pastteams=
* Atlanta Falcons (2008-present)
status= Active
highlights=
* MPC Computers Bowl MVP (2005)
* ACC Player of the Year (2007)
* Manning Award (2007)
* Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (2007)
statweek=5
statseason=2008
statlabel1=TD–INT
statvalue1=4-3
statlabel2=Passing yards
statvalue2=863
statlabel3=QB Rating
statvalue3=75.3
nfl=RYA238179

Matthew Thomas Ryan (born May 17, 1985 in Exton, Pennsylvania) is an American football quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. He was drafted by the Falcons third overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at Boston College.

From the 2005 season through 2007, he was Boston College's starter, leading them to three bowl victories and a 25-7 record in 32 starts. He has thrown for 200 or more yards 15 times and is fifth all-time in school history in passing yards and in pass completions. He also earned MVP honors at the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl. [ [http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2007/08/30/grittiness_at_the_helm Grittiness at the helm - The Boston Globe ] ] In 2007, Ryan led his team to an ACC Atlantic Division championship and was named ACC Player of the Year. [cite web |url=http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112807aaf.html |title=Boston College's Matt Ryan Named ACC Player of the Year |publisher=acc.com|date=2007-11-28|accessdate=2007-12-01]

Early years

Matt Ryan attended the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was a three-year starter for coach Brian McCloskey. He gained All-City first-team honors in 2002 and second-team honors in 2001. He was a three-time All-League selection. He was captain of the football, basketball, and baseball teams. [http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/ryan_matt00.html Player Bio: Matt Ryan :: Football ] ]

College career

2004 season

Ryan redshirted in the 2003 season. Before the 2004 season, he was named backup due to an injury to Quinton Porter. He saw his first action on October 2, 2004 against the UMass Minutemen. He completed two of three passes for 16 yards. He completed his first touchdown on November 20, 2004 against Temple on a 32-yard completion to Larry Lester. Replacing the injured Paul Peterson, he completed eight of 15 passes for 121 yards. He made his first collegiate start on November 27, 2004 in the final game of that season, completing 24 of 51 passes for 200 yards against Syracuse. He also played against North Carolina in the Continental Tire Bowl. He completed one of his two passes for 13 yards. Matt was also quite proficient in the classroom, and was awarded the 2004 Freshman Male Scholar-Athlete award that same year.

2005 season

At the beginning of the 2005 season, Ryan was named the second string quarterback behind Quinton Porter. Porter had some success at the beginning of the year, including winning Atlantic Coast Conference player of the week for his performance in Boston College's 28-17 win over Virginia. After a 30-10 loss to third-ranked Virginia Tech, coach Tom O'Brien finally went to Ryan for good in the 4th Quarter of the next game against North Carolina. In ten games (five starts), he completed 121 of 195 passes for 1,514 yards. He had eight touchdowns and five interceptions. He also had five rushing touchdowns and 94 yards. He started his first bowl game in the MPC Computers Bowl versus Boise State. He completed 19 of 36 passes for 256 yards and a career-best three touchdowns.

2006 season

Ryan started 11 of 12 games. He completed 243 of 398 passes for 2,700 yards, 14 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He also ran for three touchdowns. He was All-ACC first-team and led the ACC in total offense (242.2 yards per game) and in passing yards (245.5 yards per game). He was named ACC Offensive Back of the week 3 times. He set career highs in completions (32 vs. Central Michigan) and passing yards (356 vs. Brigham Young). He led the team to a 8-3 record including double overtime wins versus Clemson and Brigham Young. He led the Eagles to a close 25-24 victory on December 30, 2006 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against Navy in Charlotte, North Carolina. In the season opener against Central Michigan, Ryan sprained his ankle. Against Virginia Tech, Ryan broke his foot on the same leg. Despite these injuries, Ryan only missed one game (against Buffalo). [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=1159279618C3A95B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Boston.com Local Search - Boston Globe Archives ] ]

2007 season

Before the season started Ryan was named to the preseason All-ACC team. Against Wake Forest, he completed 32 of 52 passes for 408 yards and 5 touchdowns. He continued his hot streak versus Georgia Tech, going 30-44 with 1 TD and passing for a career-high 435 yards against the staunch Tech defense en route to a convincing 24-10 road victory. After this game, Ryan was suggested as a potential Heisman Trophy contender. Battling Virginia Tech through bad weather in Blacksburg, Virginia, Matt Ryan led an amazing comeback for the Boston College Eagles passing for two touchdowns with less than 3 minutes to play on October 25, 2007. [cite news|first=Mark|last=Blaudschun|url=http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2007/09/16/ryan_bc_prove_to_be_buzz_saw_against_georgia_tech/|title=Ryan, BC prove to be buzz saw against Georgia Tech|work=The Boston Globe|publisher=boston.com|date=2007-09-16|accessdate=2007-09-16] However, Matt Ryan's chances to win the Heisman fell sharply after he threw three interceptions in a 17-27 loss to Florida State, an unranked team that had six wins and three losses. However with a strong performance against Clemson his chances were raised substantially. On November 24, against ACC rival Miami, Ryan surpassed Doug Flutie for the most passing touchdowns in a single season by an Eagle QB with 28 TD's. Despite these records, he struggled with throwing interceptions throughout the year, and finished with 19 (2nd most among college quarterbacks).

Matt Ryan was awarded the 2007 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, given annually in the United States to the Nation's most outstanding college football senior quarterback. He was selected to play in the 2007 Senior Bowl. He also won the 2007 Manning Award.

Professional career

Pre-draft

Ryan scored a 32 on the Wonderlic exam, tying Louisville's Brian Brohm for the highest score by a quarterback in 2008. [ [http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-080322-nfl-draft-wonderlic-test,1,4563566.story NFL teams weigh Wonderlic tests - ChicagoSports.com ] ]

Atlanta Falcons

Ryan was drafted third overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2008 NFL Draft. He was the second first-round pick of the year to sign when he agreed to a six-year contract on May 20. The contract had an overall value of $72 million and contained $34.75 million in guaranteed money.cite web|url=http://www.ajc.com/news/content/sports/falcons/stories/2008/05/20/ryanburst_0521.html|title=Falcons ink QB Ryan to 6-year deal|last=Wyche|first=Steve|accessdate=2008-05-20] The contract made Ryan the 4th highest paid player in the NFL behind Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Carson Palmer [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2274314 ESPN - Bengals QB Palmer signs extension through 2014 - NFL ] ] despite never having played a professional game. This helped fuel the conversation regarding whether rookies in the NFL were overpaid and if there is a need for a rookie salary cap. [ [http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AmjF8jXmH.Ux2wHcxgygHwdDubYF?slug=jc-ryan052208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Falcons pay steep price for face-lift - NFL - Yahoo! Sports ] ] In addition, Ryan has signed endorsement deals with Nikecite web|url=http://www.thefootballwire.com/2008/05/matt-ryan-signs-with-nike-despite.html|title=Matt Ryan Signs with Nike Despite Michael Vick Connection|The Football Wire|accessdate=2008-05-22] and AirTran.cite web|url=http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/falcons/stories/2008/08/06/falcons_ryan_airtran_vick.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild112_prod=1dJQLPJc5GGFhdk0Qz632X96MXcx8P3zDPnMvqRLG4d8C8L2hpqT!-412780288&UrAuth=`NXNUObNYUbTTUWUXUaUZTYU^UWU^U`UZUU_UcTYWYWZV&urcm=y|title=Falcons rookie Ryan signs endorsement deal with AirTran|last=Tucker|first=Tim|accessdate=2008-09-15] He entered the 2008 season competing against former starter Chris Redman for the Falcons' starting quarterback position.

On August 24, he was named the starting quarterback for the September 7 regular season opener against the Detroit Lions. [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3551650]

On September 7, Ryan completed his first NFL pass for a 62-yard touchdown to Michael Jenkins in a game against the Detroit Lions. He finished his first NFL game with a win, going 9-for-13, passing for 161 yards and 1 touchdown. Ryan became the first rookie to start a season for the Falcons since Steve Bartkowski in 1975. He finished with 161 passing yards and a 137.0 quarterback rating. He became the first quarterback to throw a touchdown on his first career NFL pass since Michael Bishop of the New England Patriots did it in 2000. He was sacked for the first time by Lions defensive player, Dewayne White.

In the second game of the season the Falcons visited the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In this game he was intercepted for the first time in his career by rookie Cornerback Aquib Talib and also by Sabby Piscitelli. He was sacked 4 times. In week 3, Atlanta didn't have a problem beating the Kansas City Chiefs. He finished the game with 12-for-18, passed for 192 yards and 1 touchdown, completed the longest TD pass in his career for 70-yards to Roddy White and passed to 6 different players. The next week the falcons visit his divisional rival Carolina Panthers whre the falcons was defeated 24-9 ,he completed passes to eight different receivers, a season-high for . Ryan finished the game having completed 21 of 41 passes for 158 yards and a 60.8 passer rating. After the loss, Ryan make his third road start in his carrer visitng Lambeau Field when he arrived to the game with a 0-2 record in road games ,he had his best carrer game perfomance against the Green Bay Packers throwing 194 yards for 2 TD to Roddy White and for tight end Justin Peelle, intercepted once by Tramon Williams and passing to four different players

References

External links

* [http://www.atlantafalcons.com/People/Players/Active/Matt_Ryan.aspx Atlanta Falcons bio]
* [http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/ryan_matt00.html Boston College Eagles bio]