Matt Ryan has had a down year. Statistically, yes, but in every other way you can imagine, as well. Ryan missed a game for the first time since 2009, threw his highest pick total since 2015, and was sacked a career-high 48 times. That’s painful history to be making when you’re 34 years old.
In case you’re wondering how bad that season is in comparison to all the others in franchise history, it’s the second-highest number of sacks a quarterback has ever absorbed for this football team. Steve Bartkowski took 51 back in just 14 games back in 1983, meaning the Falcons just missed the mark given that Matt Schaub also took two sacks during his one-week fill-in.