So, only now, after their late arrival into the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes ended with a thud, do the Falcons get serious about moving their QB? And they do it in a very limited market for just a third-round pick? And they assume a mammoth salary cap hit to do so? They wait until the NFC is devoid of quality quarterbacks who are younger than Ryan to finally discard him – as part of the flotsam and jetsam of the Watson failure – and do so at a time when the Colts can assume him at a very reasonable salary, after Atlanta wasted all those years carrying Ryan at a massive salary and salary cap threshold just to be a postseason afterthought? Every overt signal they sent to inquiring teams, league sources told me, was that they were really inclined to keep the soon-to-be 37 year-old despite his age and their suspect roster, and the fact this team has won just 25 games the past four years with Ryan and has generally been mitigated to a playoff wanna-be by the midpoint of each of those seasons. Just a few weeks ago, as the mad scramble was on with teams hunting Russell Wilson and even the likes of Carson Wentz, the Falcons essentially sat on their hands. Always stuck without a cogent direction or obvious plan to shed mediocrity and truly pivot at once to a new horizon by maximizing return for the core that came up just short against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and amassing as many young assets as possible to try to get back there.Īnd for as much as Ryan needed to go before the 2020 season or 2020 trade deadline or 2021 trade deadline – for as many ill-fated and bloated contract restructurings and extensions as they executed with their former first-round pick – Blank's willingness to finally assume a path without Ryan, this week, is odd even by their standards. Once again, the Falcons under owner Arthur Blank are a franchise in purgatory (at best), resigned to half-measures and in-between steps, but never quite understanding when and how to leave the rubble of their Super Bowl collapse to the Patriots fully behind them. The timing, frankly, could not be more incongruent. And now that they have finally done it, it begs more questions than answers. For years in this space we have been begging the Atlanta Falcons to grasp who they are, embrace their requisite rebuild and to trade quarterback Matt Ryan.
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