The Case for Matt Ryan as MVP

While a lot of people were paying attention to Dak Prescott and Tom Brady, Falcons QB Matt Ryan quietly had an outstanding year. Ryan has always been a good quarterback, but for some reason fell just short of being considered one of the “elites” in the game.  This season, however, he posted outstanding numbers including 4,944 passing yards and 38 touchdowns, both franchise records. His quarterback rating, 83.1, is fifth best in NFL history.  He has also made better decisions on the field only throwing seven interceptions this season compared to 16 just a season ago.

It may be hard to recognize how great Ryan was this season if you were not an Atlanta fan. ESPN loves to show highlights of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, but seemingly forgot about how good Ryan was playing.  People also give credit to the weapons surrounding Ryan, including top WR Julio Jones and RB duo of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman.  While those guys deserve their own praise, Ryan was still the stand out on the team. He is the only QB in the league to never throw a deep interception this season.  The team stumbled a bit in the beginning of the season, but Ryan stayed consistently good and guided his team to the number two seed in the NFC playoffs.

There are many other quarterbacks who are having a great season, but none better than Ryan.  His team is in a great position to make a deep run in the playoffs and that is mostly because of Ryan.  Ryan may not have returned better than ever at age 39 like Tom Brady or delivered on his promise of “running the table” like Aaron Rodgers, however, he did have the best season of any quarterback this season.  If there was any doubt, the same voters who vote for MVP voted Ryan as a first-team All-Pro.