Matt Ryan

[Brian wolf]

Looking at Ryan with Indy, the receivers and offensive line didnt help him enough but no excuses for the turnovers. If he doesnt join another team this could be it. Ryan, Stafford, Wilson, Wentz, Brady and Rodgers are struggling early this year. Will one of these veterans get their teams hot for a postseason run or can a younger QB finally get his team going later in the year ?

[Reaser]

Looking at Ryan with Indy, the receivers and offensive line didnt help him enough but no excuses for the turnovers. If he doesnt join another team this could be it. Ryan, Stafford, Wilson, Wentz, Brady and Rodgers are struggling early this year. Will one of these veterans get their teams hot for a postseason run or can a younger QB finally get his team going later in the year ?

Tampa Bay is in 1st place in their division.

Rams currently hold the last WC spot in the NFC.

Green Bay is half game out of playoffs.

Ryan is benched. In theory the Colts could be in the running for the last WC spot and injury/performance brings Ryan back in but that's a long shot, at best.

Wentz should be/have been benched, injured anyway and funny he was even listed. Wilson is a no. Their teams aren't going to be near the playoffs so not really part of the discussion.

I'd say there's still pretty high odds that TB, LAR and GB all make the playoffs. Which would be what, 43% of the NFC teams, so that would be the chance of one of them making a postseason run.

[sluggermatt15]

Ryan = 14 seasons, 11 average to above average seasons, 2 very good seasons, 1 exceptional season.

When did Matt Ryan morph into a HOF-caliber QB? Even in terms of HOVG, Ryan is like a pre-back injury John Hadl, and Hadl is vastly superior to Ryan in terms of black ink.

That's just it, Ryan had just ONE exceptional season. One. It's hard to hang the hat on that. Now, if it was two or three exceptional seasons, there might warrant more discussion, because there are players who have been elected based on two to three outstanding years - Terrell Davis, Paul Hornung, et al.

Also consider he was a first-team all-pro just once, first-team all-conference just once as well. The only championship he played in will be remembered because his team lost a 25 point lead. It won't be mentioned that he led the Falcons to the SB for the second time in franchise history. Other solid QBs who played during his career - Peyton Manning (already enshrined), Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, et al - are more deserving of the PFHOF.

[Zero26]

I think of the 04 trio, Stafford and Ryan, Ryan has the worst resume except Eli(who was probably more talented). Ryan also had Julio Jones(and those first few years had Roddy White)almost his whole career and his success can be tied to 1 skill player in a way the other 4 aren't. Ryan has more honors than Stafford but I think Stafford is a better player and is the most underhonored player in NFL history, has a lot of other superlatives(5k yards both Calvin Johnson and Kupps seasons, the 4th quarter comebacks etc). But before that Ryans numbers would have been at the very top of the all time list.

Krieg is someone whose numbers might have been borderline HOF for the time(261 was a lot of TD's for back then) but whom wasn't considered because he had Largent and his numbers were becoming more common. I guess this could be similar to Ryan and Jones but Ryans numbers aren't "almost" HOF worthy though they're HOF worthy. If 300 touchdowns and 50k yards isn't enough anymore, 350+ and 60k should be. And unlike someone like Krieg, Bledsoe or McNabb I believe it's going to stay that way.

People can say these stats are a product of Ryans era and won't look as good in the future but if you look at the QBs drafted in the 2010s there aren't going to be very many QB's reaching the totals of the 04 trio, Stafford or Ryan. This is becoming clearer as players drafted in this offensive friendly era start to age. Wilson will probably make the HOF but looks less and less likely to reach those numbers by the day. Cousins is 34 and he is nowhere close to Ryan or Staffords career totals. Carr is nowhere close. Luck retired young. Ryans numbers are going to hold up nicely for awhile until players Mahomes age start retiring even with the 17th game. Also Mahomes generation seems fairly injury prone pretty early and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Mahomes is the only one to reach these sorts of milestones. There are going to be a lot of WRs from this era with HOF caliber numbers and the bar for what a HOF WRs resume looks like will probably go up. I don't see that happeneing with QBs. Ryans numbers will age well even if this is his final season.

Ryan has the weakest HOF case of a QB in his era(especially given the emphasis on winning) but I think it will be viewed as a special era at the position. Franchise QB's might be more common but them lasting over a decade is not.

[Brian wolf]

For Matt Ryan, this year cant get over fast enough ... After having a 33-0 lead get wiped out in what, 23 minutes of regulation, the Colts lose in overtime. The biggest comeback in NFL history or the worst team collapse?

Where is NFL football headed ? Are teams going to just go through the motions for 53 minutes before creating the "exciting finishes" that the networks keep drooling over ?
In his book, They Call It A Game, Bernie Parrish warned that the Networks would try to find ways to keep viewers tuned into a football game knowing full well that the games could be blowouts or defensive shutdowns at any time. Maybe the game continues to "evolve" while easily fitting into the nobody-knows-what-will-happen motifs that seem to get repeated constantly with "unbelievable finishes" or the "couldnt have written a better script" cliches ...
If professional athletes just DID THEIR JOBS, I guess it would be too easy for network fantasies of last serve tennis match endings or basketball game type endings to disappear ...

I know, I am overreacting but I also know that more than a few of my friends dont even bother watching full games anymore and will just tune into the final ten minutes to see what kind of finish it will bring ...

As for "Matty Ice" the meltdowns continue ... Losing a 17-0 lead to the Niners in the 2012 NFC Championship game, a 28-3 lead in the SB, now this regular season game ... Sheesh

[Reaser]

Brutal for Matt Ryan that no one is ever going to talk about his MVP or anything good he did and it'll always be "he was the losing QB for 28-3 and 33-0 [and the aforementioned NFC Championship when more people remember it.]"

The irony being that when a team has a lead like that it's supposed to be run the ball, control, kill the clock and of course, play defense, protect the lead, etc.

-Frank Gore runs for a TD, Frank Gore runs for another TD = "Matt Ryan blew it!"
-James White TD reception, James White runs in 2-pt, James White runs for TD, James White runs for TD = "Matt Ryan blew it!"
-Kirk Cousins throws a TD, Kirk Cousins throws a TD, Kirk Cousins throws a screen that goes for a 64-yard TD, Kirk Cousins passes for 2-pt, Greg Joseph kicks FG = "Matt Ryan blew it again!"

[racepug]

Ryan was benched for the rest of the season by Reich today. He was never worthy of HOF consideration anyway. I can’t believe that Cam Newton has even been mentioned in this thread.

I'm with you 100% on that count. I suppose it could be argued that Cam Newton's career had a similar arc to that of Matt Ryan's but, to me, Matt Ryan at his worst is better than Cam Newton was at his. Plus, Cam Newton's personality was always a complete turn-off for me. If it were up to me Cam Newton would never get mention for even the HoVG, let alone the PFHoF.

[Brian wolf]

The arguments against Newton are valid but he also has a slight case argument for HOVG because of his great running ability. The guy threw and ran for much yardage and TDs.
We can all question his ability to lead or win games, though he has nearly 80 team wins to his credit but he could have been even better had he developed more as a passer and stayed consistent but being a celebrity rather than more of a student of the game, quickened his demise once the running injuries added up ... A no on both HOVG or HOF for me but his running ability will somewhat be remembered.

[racepug]

The arguments against Newton are valid but he also has a slight case argument for HOVG because of his great running ability. The guy threw and ran for much yardage and TDs.
We can all question his ability to lead or win games, though he has nearly 80 team wins to his credit but he could have been even better had he developed more as a passer and stayed consistent but being a celebrity rather than more of a student of the game, quickened his demise once the running injuries added up ... A no on both HOVG or HOF for me but his running ability will somewhat be remembered.

Which is exACTly how I view guys like Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray, too.

[sluggermatt15]

The arguments against Newton are valid but he also has a slight case argument for HOVG because of his great running ability. The guy threw and ran for much yardage and TDs.
We can all question his ability to lead or win games, though he has nearly 80 team wins to his credit but he could have been even better had he developed more as a passer and stayed consistent but being a celebrity rather than more of a student of the game, quickened his demise once the running injuries added up ... A no on both HOVG or HOF for me but his running ability will somewhat be remembered.

It can't hurt Newton's case that Bert Jones was recently elected to the HOVG.