In his ninth season in the NFL, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan reached the league’s pinnacle of individual achievement by winning the MVP award. Unfortunately for Ryan, at the same time as his individual triumph, his team experienced one of the most crushing Super Bowl defeats in league history, as the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 deficit to top the Falcons.
The wounds from that loss still sting for those in Atlanta. Just a mention of the score “28-3” in the city will earn you a side-eye or a long sigh and shaking of the head. Falcons fans won’t soon forget that Super Bowl heartache, but the Falcons have to, as they look to bounce back for another run at a Super Bowl appearance.
Ryan and the Falcons’ potent offense, with weapons like Julio Jones and DeVonta Freeman, is the main reason why Atlanta is hoping that 2017-18 can bring them a better end result than last year. There are changes, however, coming to the Atlanta offense. Namely, a coordinator change as Kyle Shanahan heads west to take over the 49ers as the head coach and Steve Sarkisian, fresh off a brief stint under Nick Saban at Alabama, takes the reins of the offense.
On Tuesday, Ryan spoke with UPROXX Sports on behalf of Gatorade’s “Make Defeat Your Fuel” campaign about his offseason and upcoming training camp, handling the Super Bowl loss, trying to extend his career into his late 30s, the challenges of changing offensive coordinators, and more.
How’s the offseason treated you so far?
The offseason’s been really good. I feel like I had a specific focus on trying to get better at a few things, and I’ve worked really hard to try and improve in those areas, but it’s been good too to travel and relax. I’m at that point now where I’m ready for training camp to start.
What, specifically, are some of those things you are trying to tweak, considering you’re coming off of an MVP season?
There’s always a lot of things. I try to keep it narrow focused. One of the things for me this offseason, as I’ve gotten into my 30s, is trying to tap into taking care of my body the best I can. I’ve been fortunate to team up with Gatorade this offseason. Working with the folks from the GSSI [Gatorade Sports Science Institute] has been really good for me about recovery and hydration and those sorts of things. As you get into your 30s, that’s been an area of emphasis for me, so I’ve tried to improve there.
As far as specific on the field stuff, I always take one or two things when it comes to mechanics and footwork that I really try to clean up. They’re small things, but they’re things I try to attack every day that I workout and train. I feel like I’m in a good place and throwing the ball really well right now, and really excited to get back and get started with my teammates.
Now that you’re into your 30s and going into your 10th season, have you talked with any of the guys that have had careers that go into their late 30s about how to handle that physically?
Yeah, I’ve certainly talked with Peyton [Manning] a little bit about those things. There’s a lot of different things, and everybody’s different and you have to find what works for you. Another guy that has given me a lot of advice in that department was Tony Gonzalez. I had the opportunity to play with him for a long time here in Atlanta and he was about as good as anybody that I’ve been around of taking care of themselves and playing at a really high level late into their career and well into their 30s. That’s one of the things for me, as I move forward, it’s about trying to get that peak performance at an older age. I’m 32 still, so I’m not that old. I still feel pretty good.
Being in your 10th year, I’m sure you’ve gotten into a pretty good rhythm as far as how your offseason goes. What’s your typical schedule for you between the end of the season and camp to, like you said, balance rest and work?
I believe in, you’ve gotta have a balance. After the season it’s important to take some time and get away. So after the season I usually take a couple of weeks and try to actively recover. Just move around a little bit, but really get away from football and all the things that come with playing football and try to vacation and travel a little bit. But once I get back into it, I work with Adam Dedeaux and some of the folks out there in California at 3DQB, and we try to come up with a plan to put together an itinerary for me to peak perform from September through February.
That starts pretty quickly. I mean, we played through early February this year and I was back throwing at the beginning of March. There’s enough time to rest, but you’ve gotta work too. I’ve done a good job of figuring that out for me at this point of my career in striking that right balance.
With camp about to start, what’s the message for the team in mentally rebounding from the Super Bowl loss?
Well I think we’ve moved on. We’re at a point where, when we got into our offseason program, it was about making this team — our 2017 team — the absolute best it can be. Each year there’s so much turnover on your roster from year-to-year that we’ve got a lot of new guys in the building that weren’t a part of it. But the guys that were understand what it took to get to that point. All of the sacrifices and hard work that we put in last year, and I think guys are ready and guys are hungry to get started.
You have a new offensive coordinator this year in Steve Sarkisian. What have you learned this offseason about him and his offense and what you’ll be running next season?
Well, it’s been great working with Sark for the first two to three months this offseason. I think he’s really bright, sharp, really smart. I mean, he’s got some really good ideas when it comes to offensive football and understanding the game. He fits in well from the group that we have from a personality standpoint. He’s had to make the transition, though, for sure. We’ve kept things very similar to what it’s been the past two years, and I’ve been impressed with how quickly he can learn those things.
You’ve been through coordinator changes before. What’s the toughest part of that change as a quarterback, and do those past experiences let you know what the hurdles are in order to get on the same page?
Yeah, you know, you’ve got to communicate really clearly. That’s probably the thing I’ve learned going through each transition from coordinator to coordinator is that, open lines of communication are key. And not assuming that they know or you know what they’re talking about. Let’s be really clear about what we’re talking about, and I think me and Sark have been really good about that to this point.
How much does having a core group around you that you’ve played with for a few years, like Julio Jones and DeVonta Freeman, help in that transition?
Yeah I think it’s key. Experience and playing with each other and just kinda knowing each other inside and out, that’s huge. And we have a lot of guys that have played together for a long time and have that on-field experience. We can read each other’s body language without even really talking. You just have, you know, a feeling of where people are going to be at. We’re lucky to have as much continuity as we have had as an organization for the past few years.
How much confidence does having a guy like Julio Jones on the outside, who doesn’t have to be completely open to be able to go get the ball, give you as a quarterback?
Yeah, when you’ve got a guy like that you just have to trust that they’re going to make plays. Whether they’re open or not, I mean, he’s always open. It doesn’t matter. I’m really fortunate to be able to play with him and have been able to play with him for as long as I have.
