UP, UP & AWAY
Matty Ice has ascended to Super status
Troy Aikman was curious. He did not see much of Matt Ryan at Boston College. In Ryan’s NFL rookie year of 2008, the Falcons were not on the national television radar, so Aikman did not study Ryan for the FOX broadcast.
Aikman kept hearing the buzz about Ryan, so about a month into the season, he asked his video coordinator to fetch him some film of Ryan.
“He was playing well and people were talking about him,’’ Aikman told The Post on Wednesday. The film session did not last long. “I literally watched him throw five or six passes and I just turned it off,’’ Aikman said. “I just kind of said, ‘I’ve seen what I need to see.’ You could just tell he was wellcoached at Boston College and he got off to a really good start and he had a gift.’’
Fast-forward nine years later. Ryan has, in many ways, lived up to Aikman’s initial assessment, bursting on the NFL scene as a quality quarterback and developing into something better than that. There have been peaks and valleys, good-to-great seasons mixed in with years of struggle and losing.
Never, though, has Ryan re a c hed t he level he occupies as he leads the Falcons into Super Bowl LI for a Feb. 5 meeting with the Patriots in Houston. Ryan is the favorite to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award, and his duel with Tom Brady is viewed as a young gun going against the older master, not viewed as a mismatch.
“I do believe he’s going to be the MVP — he deserves it,’’ said Steve Mariucci, former head coach of the 49ers and Lions and currently an NFL Network analyst. “This is one of those seasons, most things fell right into place for him.’’
This was not a magical transformation. Ryan was never a bad quarterback but, until this year, he never has been a great one. His best previous season was in 2012, when he set career highs for touchdowns (32) and passer rating (99.1). The Falcons made it to the NFC Championship and had a 17-0 lead, at home, on the 49ers before melting down in a difficult, 28-24 loss.
The upward career arc for Ryan sharply plateaued after the 2012 season. In the next three years, he averaged 25 touchdown passes and nearly 16 interceptions. Again, not bad, but nothing special. As their quarterback took a step back, the Falcons took a leap backward, going 4-12, 6-10 and 8-8, with head coach Mike Smith giving way to Dan Quinn.
“I think he was definitely good or very good,’’ said Tim Hasselbeck, former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst. “I would classify last year, honestly, as one of his worst.’’
Ryan went from worst to first. He established career highs in completion percentage ( 69.9 ) , touch downs (38), yards (4,94 4) and passer rating (117.1). He threw a career-low seven interceptions. He goes into the Super Bowl on an offthe-charts surge.
Ryan is the first quarterback in league history with a passer rating higher than 120.0 in six consecutive games. He has thrown 18 touchdown passes and no interceptions in that span, and the Falcons averaged 39 points a game. His passer rating of 139.3 last week against the Packers is the second-highest ever in a conference championship game.
At 31 years old, Ryan seemingly has found an elixir to vault him into superstardom.
“You watch him, he’s got all the tools in the world. He can do everything. He’s smart. He’s accurate. He makes good decisions. He gets the ball out. He’s mobile,’’ said Aikman, a Hall of Fame quarterback with the Cowboys. “I mean, there’s nothing not to like about him.’’
It is not as if the light suddenly turned on for Ryan. More accurately, the operation around him tightened up, with upgrades in talent and coaching on offense and an improving defense to make sure the leads Ryan creates are protected.
This is Ryan’s second season working with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Ask any quarterback about the challenge of learning a new system and his response might take up half your afternoon.
“I think he and Kyle Shanahan are on the same page mentally with the game plan and the play-calling,’’ Mariucci said. “It’s a real fit.’’
“There’s was talk last year, ‘What’s wrong with this relationship? Matt doesn’t like Kyle, Kyle doesn’t like Matt, it’s just not going to work,’” said CBS analyst Trent Green, a former NFL quarterback. “They just weren’t in sync. Matt had a lot of turnovers for him, some of them very costly. I think a lot of it has to do with being in the second year of the system, Kyle understanding what Matt does well, Matt getting a good feel what Kyle is looking for in with the offense.’’
Shanahan has received such high marks that the 49ers are poised to hire him as their next head coach immediately after the Super Bowl.
“I’ve always liked Kyle Shanahan and what he’s done offensively,” Aikman said. “Watching the team he’s put together in Atlanta, with their personnel, I think that’s been the biggest difference for Matt.’’
Veteran center Alex Mack was signed away from the Browns, receiver Mohamed Sanu from the Bengals, and they added receiver Taylor Gabriel, who was cut by the Browns. And Shanahan has given Ryan a diverse ground game with Devon ta Freeman and Tevin Coleman.
There is nothing flashy about Ryan , though he is the triggerman for the most potent and multiple attack in the league. Asked what stands out mos t about Ryan, Sanu said, “How hard he works. He works tremendously hard, week in and week out. He doesn’t change his routine, he’s always coming in early and leaving late. He grinds man, he grinds.’’
The grind continues as Ryan heads into his first Super Bowl. The stars have aligned for the NFL’s newest superstar.
“There’s a lot of change from last year to this year,’’ Hasselbeck said. “You factor all those things in and what happens is this very good player ends up having a
great year.’’