With the next class of inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame set to be announced on Thursday night, it's worth taking a look at the career of a player who, although he hasn't officially announced his retirement just yet, has been out of the NFL for one full season and will sometime soon make for a very polarizing Hall of Fame candidate.
Matt Ryan has played fifteen years in the NFL. He's one of only eight quarterbacks in league history with at least 60,000 passing yards, and one of fourteen with at least 300 touchdowns. His 124 wins are the 14th-most of any quarterback in league history. And yet depending on who you ask, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback is far from a lock to eventually be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
If you ask Matt Ryan himself, though, he'll tell you that he's proud of the career he's had and thinks he's done enough in his NFL career to eventually be worthy of enshrinement in Canton.
I asked Matt Ryan if he should be a Hall of Famer: "I do. … The numbers speak for themselves. The consistency speaks for itself. I hope it's something that happens one day."
Full interview coming on @The33rdTeamFB.pic.twitter.com/6613zJnhj0
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 8, 2024
Matt Ryan speaks to the consistency and production he displayed during his time in Atlanta, and you can't necessarily argue with either of those points. Ryan threw for at least 4,000 yards in ten straight seasons as the Falcons starting quarterback. In each of those ten seasons, he finished in the top ten in the league in passing yards, and in eight of those seasons, he also finished in the top ten in passing touchdowns. Ryan's 154 consecutive starts from 2009 to 2019 is the 5th-longest streak by a quarterback in NFL history, only trailing streaks by Brett Favre, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, and Peyton Manning. His 38 4th quarter comebacks are the 4th-most in NFL history, and his 46 game winning drives are the 6th-most.
You take all of that information and nothing else, and yeah, it would almost be impossible to make a case against Matt Ryan. But here's where his candidacy gets tricky: Ryan is a part of an entire era of quarterbacks that will have interesting Hall of Fame cases. Due to the proliferation of the passing game in the modern NFL, the all-time passing record books have been flooded by post-2000 quarterbacks. Surely all of them can't make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, right?
In this group under consideration, you have Matt Ryan, along with peers of his such as Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, Carson Palmer, Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson, and Joe Flacco. All eight of those quarterbacks are in the top twenty in career passing yards, along with Peyton Manning (already inducted), and Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers, who are all Hall of Fame locks. So of that group of eight, who is it that makes the cut and who gets left out?
Who Makes the Cut?
Of all Hall of Fame eligible quarterbacks, Jim Plunkett is the only one who has won two Super Bowls as a starter and NOT made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As mentioned before, Brady will surely get in. If Patrick Mahomes never played another snap in the NFL, he'd be in too. Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning are on that list, and there will be debate about their candidacy when they are Hall of Fame eligible. I think the combination of Super Bowls and raw stats will be good enough to get each of them in.
Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson and Joe Flacco have each won on Super Bowl. Flacco's 2013 postseason run will forever go down as one of the most incredible in league history, but that won't carry enough weight to get him into the Hall of Fame. How Stafford and Wilson finish out their careers could determine whether they'll one day reside in Canton. I'd give Wilson the slight edge over Stafford at the moment.
Philip Rivers never reached a Super Bowl. Nor did Carson Palmer. Palmer won't make the Hall of Fame, but Rivers has a good shot, considering many analysts believe that if Rivers had the supporting casts — and the luck — that Roethlisberger and Manning did, he too would've won at least one Super Bowl.
Matt Ryan has a Super Bowl appearance that Rivers and Palmer lack, and his counting stats are on par with Roethlisberger and Rivers as the best in that group. Additionally, of those eight post-2000 quarterbacks listed above, Matt Ryan is the only one with a league-MVP on his resume. But that doesn't necessarily ensure a Hall of Fame induction. There are ten Hall eligible quarterbacks who were former league MVP's — Earl Morrall, Roman Gabriel, John Brodie, Bert Jones, Brian Sipe, Ken Anderson, Joe Theismann, Boomer Esiason, Rich Gannon, Steve McNair — who have not been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ryan could eventually become the 11th.
For now though, Matt Ryan should enjoy retirement. He's undoubtedly the greatest quarterback in the history of the Atlanta Falcons, and could one day be immortalized with a bronze bust in Canton.
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