By: Jake Rajala

The college football god, Madden cheat code, and the former dazzling dual-threat quarterback in the NFL, Michael Vick, officially hung up his cleats in the 2015 off-season. It wasn’t clear that Vick was special when he entered the league in his rookie season, but he was clearly on another level in his sophomore campaign (2,936 passing yards, 16 passing touchdowns to 8 interceptions, 777 rushing yards, and 8 rushing TDs). Vick was second in MVP voting (behind Peyton Manning) in 2004 by way of 2,313 passing yards, 14 passing touchdowns, a whopping 902 rushing yards, and leading his team to an 11-4 record.

It was well-noted that Vick caught the wrong type of spotlight for his role in dogfighting in the year 2007. He was given a tough sentence of 548 days in prison for his crime.

After his jail sentence, the former Falcons QB returned to a new team that still had a bird logo, the Philadelphia Eagles. He was the Eagles backup QB to Donovan McNabb in 2009, but he rose to become the Eagles QB1 in 2010. In the year that Apple released the iPad Tablet computer, Vick impressively and inspiringly won Comeback Player of The Year.

Vick also shined in the 2011 season (589 rushing yards, 3,303 passing yards, 18 passing touchdowns) and ousted modest numbers in 10 games the following season (2,362 passing yards, 12 passing TDs, and 332 rushing yards in 10 games). Although, it was clear that he lost his spark and ability to stay healthy after 2012. The left-handed QB didn’t start more than six contests in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

With that said, it was clear that Vick enjoyed the true definition of a roller-coaster NFL career. A fascinating, pivotal question surrounds the retired QB: Is Vick a future Hall of Famer?

I wholeheartedly believe that the former Falcons QB with an exciting playing style and inspiring comeback story should eventually be inducted into the HOF. He wasn’t the most prolific passing QB, but he holds the record for the most career rushing yards. Furthermore, it should be noted that he’s had numerous ungodly seasons. He may not have a Super Bowl ring, but neither does Tony Romo (who is also a HOF lock in my opinion). I’d also like to point out that Romo had seven quality seasons and Vick had six superb all-around seasons. Vick may be overly critical of his HOF chances, but I foresee the NFL figure that re-designed the QB spot giving a HOF acceptance speech and being cast into football heaven.

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By: Andy Davies

When Arthur Smith was hired as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, he came into the role with a great reputation for improving players after a two-season spell as the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans.

One player he helped improve was quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The former first-round pick arrived after a mixed spell with the Miami Dolphins. Tannehill improved massively, earning the award for Comeback Player of the Year after his first season with the franchise despite starting the season as the backup to Marcus Mariota. When Smith was promoted to offensive coordinator, he only got better.

Smith was predicted by many to help Matt Ryan get back to his former MVP self after what he did for Tannehill. Ryan has not improved or regressed in 2021. Instead, it has been Cordarrelle Patterson that has been the biggest improver under Smith. 

Here is why Patterson is Smith’s new Tannehill. 

Overcoming Expectation

The Falcons experimented with the idea of bringing Todd Gurley back to his best in 2020 but this only lasted one season. Instead of giving Gurley a new deal, they went for the versatile Patterson in Free Agency who signed a one-year $3 million deal. 

Patterson has been seen as somewhat of a journeyman during his NFL career, with the Falcons his fifth organisation since being drafted 29^th overall in 2013. For a while, he was seen as a great return specialist at best, with the occasional snaps as a running back or wide receiver.

He is a Super Bowl champion, earning a ring with the New England Patriots after their 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 53. However, he had just two rushing attempts for 7 yards and two receptions for 14 yards as well as a 38-yard kick return. He did not exactly have a big role in the game, in what is the lowest scoring Super Bowl in history. 

Patterson has started eight games this season. This is tied for the most games he has started, alongside his 2016 campaign with the Minnesota Vikings. The growth of Patterson and improvement made under Smith can be seen when you compare these two seasons.

In 2016, he recorded 43 rushing yards from 7 attempts and 453 yards from 52 receptions. In 2021, he has so far recorded 489 rushing yards from 106 carries and 518 receiving yards from 44 catches. He is having the best season of his career by some distance. 

The Falcons need to make sure he is at the franchise for more than one season. Giving him a new contract should be number one on the list of priorities for this team. He has been a brilliant addition to the Falcons offense. Kyle Pitts leads the team in receiving yards this season (770), but Calvin Ridley announced midseason that he would take a break from the sport for personal reasons. With the offseason departure of Julio Jones, Patterson’s rise in form has come at the perfect time. They currently sit at 6-7 with a chance of making the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 campaign.

Smith’s Influence

The aforementioned Tannehill spoke about Smith during the 2021 offseason.

“He’s a great coach. Everything you look for in a coach and a leader and a great offensive mind.”

It is not just Tannehill that saw massive improvement under Smith. Running back Derrick Henry was seen as just a good running back during his first three seasons but saw his best two seasons alongside Smith. He recorded 2,293 rushing yards across his first three seasons in the NFL. His next two (2019 and 2020) saw him combine for 3,567 rushing yards and 33 rushing touchdowns, becoming just the eighth player in NFL history to record over 2,000 rushing yards in a single season when he had 2,027 in 2019. 

Smith clearly knows how to work with running backs, as can be seen with Henry. The same is happening again with Patterson. After their 21-14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in November, Smith was in high praise of Patterson.

“He’s a warrior. He’s a big physical presence that can do a lot for us.”

This was proved when he was listed as a back safety earlier this month.  It is a sign of a good coach when they can get the best out of a player and see their potential. Not even the greatest head coach of all time in Bill Belichick realised Patterson’s potential. Smith has taken a player seemingly on the wrong end of his career, to now being one of the best players this season. Some are even viewing him as an outside MVP candidate.

Patterson has a lot to thank Smith for. 

The post Is Cordarrelle Patterson Arthur Smith’s New Ryan Tannehill? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Jeremy Trottier

The Atlanta Falcons are in a relatively compromising position as of right now, drafting Kyle Pitts with the #4 overall pick and still missing lots of positional needs.  The large majority of their core is starting to age now, Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Grady Jarrett, Hayden Hurst, etc.  With that being the case, they come to the conundrum of either letting Matt Ryan hold the reigns for a few more years or just partially rebuilding for a few years.

In this article, I will be going over three reasons as to why the Falcons front office should make the change and draft a QB next offseason.

Aging Core and Julio Jones Situation

As I mentioned previously, the Falcons original core is heavily aging to the point where they have more holes than they can fill in a reasonably timed fashion.  Also with the news regarding Julio Jones wanting to be traded sooner rather than later, the core will continue to get into a poor situation.  

With the knowledge that a lot of these players could be retiring soon, and one of their primary receiving weapons likely leaving, this team has kind of come to the point where moving some pieces to get younger assets is in play.  Bringing in a new quarterback in the 2022 NFL Draft will give them the opportunity to kind of start from scratch in a sense and allow the team to focus on a new system type potentially.

The 2022 QB Class is Very Extensive

From what we have seen so far from the 2022 class, there is going to be a lot and I mean A LOT of QB prospects coming that have high potential ceilings.  Just to list off some of he major ones that we know of so far:

• Spencer Rattler – Oklahoma
• Sam Howell ”“ North Carolina
• Kedon Slovis ”“ USC
• Malik Willis ”“ Liberty
• Desmond Ridder ”“ Cincinatti
• J.T. Daniels ”“ Georgia
• Carson Strong ”“ Nevada

The list continues on even further and realistically there are a ton of them there is a good chance a few will have a pre-draft year breakout season.  If the Falcons were to go in the direction of QB this season, they would have a wide variety of playstyles and potential players to pick from considering this notion.  A lot of this depends on how these players can perform in their last years before draft eligibility, but if at least a few do so this will give Atlanta the option.

Potential Draft Pick

The Falcons have made improvements this offseason, no doubt about it.  But these improvements will likely not put them in a position where they will be competing as of yet, especially with the loss of Julio potentially looming.  If they were to end up with a similar record this season as they did last season, they could get a pretty high up draft pick again and have a high choice over a lot of the QBs previously listed.  

Intentionally tanking is probably a poor choice to start the season, but if they are having trouble stringing together wins early on it may be worth considering cutting their losses and working into a half-rebuild.  If they can focus on purely upgrading the defense this offseason with a few more signings, then next season all they would have to do is grab the new QB and get them situated quickly.  

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By: Jeremy Trottier

With the NFL offseason primarily wrapped up, we see some of the veterans of the world being traded and some remaining the same.  Matthew Stafford was traded to the Los Angeles Rams this offseason, which should definitely do him well as a player.  While Matt Ryan has remained in Atlanta with Julio Jones potentially on the move in the near future.

However, in this article I will be dictating which of the two quarterbacks is more overrated currently, as well as why.  Granted, this is not a dig at either QB, as they are both phenomenal talents, its more about who gets more hype for doing less.

2020 Performances

One of the easiest ways to determine this is how each quarterback performed in their respective teams.  They had relatively similar weapons in terms of value, between Julio Jones, Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones jr., Calvin Ridley, TJ Hockenson, and Hayden Hurst.  While they are different in terms of where the value lies, they are about the same in terms of receiving cores so the numbers should show dividends.

Here are each of their statlines from 2020:

• Matt Ryan: 16/16 games started, 4-12 record, 407 completions on 626 attempts (65%), 4,581 yards, 26 touchdowns to 11 interceptions, and a 67.0 QBR
• Matthew Stafford: 16/16 games started, 5-11 record, 339 completions on 528 attempts (64.2%), 4,084 yards, 26 touchdowns to 10 interceptions, and a 68.4 QBR

These stats show Matt Ryan threw more often and completed slightly more effectively, but Stafford threw more proportional touchdowns (more on less attempts) as well as one less interception and a better QBR. Overall, their stats do not really change a ton, as they are so vaguely similar in different ways that neither are really “overrated” solely based on this.

Supporting Cast

As I brought up earlier, the supporting cast plays a huge role in how a QB plays and their stats.  As if one QB has significantly better players around them, they will perform much better, as one would expect.  With that said, here are each of their supporting casts and info regarding each:

Matt Ryan:

Receiving threats: Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Hayden Hurst, Olimade Zaccheaus, Russell Gage

O-line: According to PFF (21^st) According to sacks (28^th)

Defense: 19^th overall

Matthew Stafford:

Receiving threats: Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones Jr., T.J. Hockenson, Danny Ammendola

O-line: According to PFF (13^th) According to sacks (27^th)

Defense: 32^nd overall (worst in the league)

One of the main points of emphasis here is defense, as it allows the offense back on the field with every turnover it forces and however well it performs.  Matt Ryan was working with a middle of the pack defense statistically, while Stafford worked with the worst in the league.  The offensive lines are favoring the Lions, however according to sack numbers are pretty much the same.  Stafford also had a slightly worse receiving corps, in terms of depth, and with WR1 Kenny Golladay injured all but five games this is taken away.

Conclusion

This ended up being significantly closer than I thought it would be.  Matt Ryan has the better overall stats due to passing more often than Stafford, however also passed more efficiently.  With that said, Stafford had overall the worse supporting cast around him.  This comes down to which factors a bigger role into overratedness.  

With everything taken into account, Matt Ryan has to be considered the slightly more overrated player here.  Mainly because Stafford was working with absolutely nothing on defense, and about the same in terms of weapons and line.  However, if Stafford were to perform statistically worse than Ryan this year with the Rams, this is a completely different conversation entirely.

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By: Ladarius Brown

Now that the 2021 NFL Draft is in the books, franchises now have their players of the future in place. One of those franchises, the Atlanta Falcons, did just at pick No. 4, drafting Kyle Pitts of Florida. As I have mentioned in other pieces, this was the right call for two reasons. First, there is a strong likelihood that All-Pro WR Julio Jones could be traded after June 1st because of his high cap number ($23 million). Second, the Falcons will not pick up TE Hayden Hurst’s fifth-year option, thus inserting Pitts as the starter of the future.    

The reason why he has legitimate shot at the award is because of his new QB, Matt Ryan. Ryan has 10 seasons of at least 4,000 passing yards, good for 5th all-time. Ryan knows how to get the ball to his targets, doing so his whole career.    

Here is a list of players and year(s) that they had at one 1,000-yard receiver under Ryan in his 13-year career:   

WR Roddy White ”“ 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012   

WR Julio Jones ”“ 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019   

WR Harry Douglas ”“ 2013   

WR Calvin Ridley ”“ 2020   

Notice a pattern? Every year since Ryan has been the starting QB of the Falcons, there has been at least one player with 1,000 yards receiving. When you have almost 56,000 career passing yards and average 272 yards/gm, it might not be all that surprising. This is why I am very optimistic that Pitts’ chances at winning the award.   

Looking at the history of Ryan and TEs, there are only two that have been the most productive during his tenure. First, HOF’er Tony Gonzalez, one of the best to play the position, was Ryan’s No. 1 TE for five years (2009-2013). During his time in Atlanta, Gonzalez accumulated 409 receptions, 4,187 receiving yards, and 35 TDs.    

Austin Hooper, their 3rd round pick in 2016 out of Stanford, had a very solid career for the Falcons. In his four seasons (2016-2019), he had 214 receptions, 2,244 yards, and 16 TDs. While both Gonzalez and Hooper were great in their respective tenures for the Falcons but Pitts and his game fit how the position is being played now.   

The evolution of the TE was from players who typically played on the line of scrimmage only in a stance to being slot WRs and running the route tree as a WR. At Florida, Pitts was another WR in HC Dan Mullen’s offense. He played the position as a freshman in Gainsville. Pitts as well lined up in all of the receiver positions on the field.    

TEs have become just as much of a weapon/ best friend for a QB as a WR. A few examples: Patrick Mahomes has Travis Kelce, Tom Brady has Gronk, and Jimmy G (eventually Trey Lance) has George Kittle.   

How can Matt Ryan’s weapon/best friend Kyle Pitts elevate him back to that 2016 MVP status? First, let us examine Ryan’s MVP season. He had 4,944 passing yards, 38 TDs, and 7 Ints. Here is a positional breakdown by percentage of receiving yards that year:  

WRs not named Julio Jones ”“ 36.5% (1,817 yards)  

Julio Jones ”“ 28.5 % (1,409 yards)  

RBs ”“ 19.1% (944 yards)  

TEs ”“ 15.9% (788 yards)  

As you can see, RBs accounted for more receiving yards than TEs. Even more, RBs Devonta Freeman & Tevin Coleman had more yards receiving than every single TE on the roster in 2016.   

Pitts can fill this weak spot instantaneously. In 2016, five TEs caught passes from Ryan. Pitts had 43 receptions, 770 yards, and 12 TDs in his last season at Florida. If you integrate those stats into Ryan’s 2016 MVP season, Pitts would have been 4th in receptions, 2nd in yards, and 1st in TDs. Inserting Pitts’ stats in his last season at Florida with Ryan’s in 2016 while omitting the TEs and their stats that year, here’s the stat line: 4,926 yards, 40 TDs, and 7 Ints.  

As you can see, Ryan loses 18 yards but gets an additional 2 TDs if Pitts were there in 2016. Pitts would have accounted for 15.6% of Ryan’s passing yards all by himself. That is .4% less of all TEs in that MVP year. Ryan relied more on the RBs in 2016 than his TEs, which can be quite concerning.   

Now that Ryan has a legitimate playmaker at TE in Pitts, Ryan can get back into form. Most defenses use an LB to cover TEs but that would be a major mismatch for Pitts and an elite QB like Ryan will pick that apart. Pitts can cover the field more than any other TE Ryan has ever played with. Ryan has one, possibly two, MVP years left in him. If WR Calvin Ridley is the next Julio Jones combined with Pitts, Ryan is a legit MVP candidate.   

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