Falcons QB coach London a staunch supporter of Ryan

After watching the Mitchell Trubisky quarterback situation play out during his time with the Chicago Bears, it’s no surprise new Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London is a staunch supporter of veteran quarterback Matt Ryan.

The Falcons blew a 26-10 lead and lost 30-26 to the Bears on Sept. 27 at Mercedes-benz Stadium. Trubisky, who was taken No. 2 overall in the 2017 NFL draft, was pulled by the Bears, and veteran quarterback Nick Foles torched the Falcons secondary for 20 consecutive points.

The Falcons’ new coaching regime has reviewed the debacle that was 2020, and Ryan passed with flying colors.

“We studied every dropback pass, every play-action pass, everything that Matt did this past year,” said London, a former Dunwoody High standout who later played at Duke. “We thought as a staff that he was still performing at a high level. He could still do everything that was needed to do to run this offense. I look forward to working with him. He has a very unique skill set.”

Ryan, who will turn 36 Monday, owns all of the Falcons’ passing marks. He’s set to enter his 14th season in the NFL.

“He’s been doing it in this league for a long time at a high level,” London said. “We expect that to continue this year.”

The Falcons heavily studied the quarterback options for the 2021 NFL draft but elected to bypass taking a quarterback for the future. Former Ohio State signal-caller Justin Fields and former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones were on the board when the Falcons tabbed tight end Kyle Pitts with the fourth overall pick.

While under siege, Ryan somehow managed to pass for 272.7 yards per game, which ranked fifth in the league. He was sacked 42 times, hit 71 times and hurried 55 times. The Falcons averaged 24.8 points (16th) and stalled regularly in the red zone as they scored touchdowns at a 53.45% red-zone clip (ranked 26th).

Protecting Ryan and finding a rushing attack will be key to an offensive revival.

“I’ve really enjoyed being with him ... and it’s been really good football talk, back and forth,” London said. “I see things from a different perspective than the way he sees it . ... I think that’s been really, really key for me to understand how he thinks and how he ticks.”

London has worked hard to try to understand how Ryan operates — “On this certain route with this certain coverage, this is why he’s throwing this or this is why his footwork is this way,” London said.

Ryan has been to four Pro Bowls, made one All-pro team and been named the league’s MVP. However, he’s 18-30 since signing his six-year, $150 million contract exten- sion, and the Falcons have not been to the playoffs.

The new regime is installing the outside-zone system Ryan ran under former coordinator Kyle Shanahan.

London, Ryan and offensive coordinator Dave Ragone are striving for compatibility. One of the sticking points with Ryan and Shanahan was running bootlegs off wide-zone runs. Ryan didn’t want to turn his back to the defense.

When Shanahan left, so did the bootlegs. The Falcons started tossing the ball for the outside runs.

The bootlegs could be coming back.

“We’ve talked about everything that Matt has done over his career,” London said. “He’s been in a lot of different systems. He’s seen things a lot of different ways.”

Falcons coach Arthur Smith used bootlegs off of fakes to Derrick Henry to help Ryan Tannehill become the league’s top passer in 2020 with the Tennessee Titans.

“I think Matt is really good at it,” London said. “I think he’s got a lot of confidence in that scheme. I think he’s got a lot of confidence in the play-pass and the movements that could potentially be in this offense.”

The bottom line will be whether they can agree if the bootleg plays will help the Falcons win games. “If it’s something that we don’t feel fits, obviously we’ll move on to something else,” London said. “But I think that may be something that fits in our plan, and it’s something we’ll start with in our OTAS and minicamps.”

The Falcons also signed veteran quarterback AJ Mccarron to back up Ryan and Feleipe Franks, who signed as an undrafted rookie free agent.