Matt Ryan is a good QB trapped inside an offensive scheme that is inadequate for his style
Matt Ryan vs Kyle Shanahan: One has got to go
The Atlanta Falcons’ fan base is at a huge sticking point with Matt Ryan and offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan and it’s likely to explode whether we like it or not.
Most of the fan base has completely disowned Shanahan for one reason or another. But mostly for the fact that nobody think’s he knows what he’s doing.
And while bits and pieces of that might be true, not all of the blame can be placed on him. And because of that, the remaining blame has been placed on Ryan.
There have been countless articles written on the boiled over frustrations on this very topic, but a lot of people aren’t seeing the bigger picture.
Ryan isn’t a bad quarterback, and Shanahan isn’t a bad coordinator. The problem lies with Ryan not being the style of quarterback that Shanahan’s complex system calls for.
Shanahan has had pretty much every style of quarterback in his system from one time or another, but arguably his best season as an OC came in 2012 when he coached rookie QB Robert Griffin III.
Both Griffin and running back Alfred Morris had monster seasons under Shanahan and made the playoffs because of it. Griffin passed for over 3,000 yards and rushed for another 800 while Morris rushed for 1,613 yards.
More from Blogging Dirty
Having a mobile quarterback and a running back that has good vision was the perfect recipe for success under Shanahan. And in Atlanta, that just isn’t the case.
Ryan is never going to be a mobile quarterback. he’s a pocket passer through and through whether that’s here with the Falcons, or with a different NFL team.
The Falcons ran a couple of plays yesterday against Tampa Bay that almost looked as if they were designed for Ryan to scramble if needed. And even if they weren’t, a mobile QB easily would’ve made some big plays. Massive holes were created for Ryan to be able to run, but that isn’t his style. Whenever Ryan takes off with the ball, we all cringe because not much good ever comes of it.
Ryan is a good quarterback trapped inside an offensive system that doesn’t suite his style.
That cannot be stressed enough.
Sure, you can blame Shanahan here and there for a bad play call, but where you should really be placing the blame is on Falcons’ head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff. Quinn is the one that vouched for Shanahan and Dimitroff is the one who signed off on it.
Most of us should’ve known right off the bat that hiring Shanahan as our OC was going to be a train-wreck. Not because he’s a bad OC, but again, because Ryan doesn’t make sense running an offense like that.
Ryan needs freedom to chance calls at the line of scrimmage and run no-huddle, and he isn’t given a lot of freedom in Shanahan’s scheme.
So now we’ve come to a major sticking point. Either fire Shanahan and bring in yet another OC for Ryan to work with in the latter stages of his career, or bring in a fresh new face at QB that properly fits into what Shanahan wants to do.
Ryan has been handcuffed ever since Shanahan stepped foot onto their Flowery Branch headquarters.
90 percent of the fan base would say that Ryan should stay and Shanahan should go because Ryan has been here since day 1. But, is firing Shanahan really going to solve all of the Falcons’ problems?
Maybe it is time to part ways with Ryan. We’re doing him a disservice with him having to scratch and claw his way though this inadequate system only to get ripped apart by the fan base.
Either way, something has to be done. It’s becoming more and more painful to watch and if the Falcons aren’t careful, this entire team could implode before our very eyes.
This article originally appeared on 
