It’s no great secret that Matt Ryan likes play action, as do most quarterbacks when it’s used effectively. Kyle Shanahan’s heavy use of play action enabled Ryan’s MVP season in 2016, and the decline in that usage and an increase in more traditional deep drops coincided with a drop in production in Dirk Koetter’s offense.
In 2019, Ryan was 3rd in the NFL in passing attempts and just 17th in play action passes. Koetter made more of an effort to change that in 2020, as Ryan jumped all the way up to 4th in play action passes while leading the league in passing attempts.