The Atlanta Falcons‘ decision to hand Matt Ryan control of their football operation was one of the biggest organizational changes in franchise history.
Four games into Ryan’s first season as president of football, one NFL coach apparently believes the rest of the league should be paying close attention.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio said a coach singled out Ryan while discussing former star quarterbacks now holding influential roles with NFL teams, including Tom Brady with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Matt Ryan Has NFL Teams ‘Concerned,’ Coach Says
“Matt Ryan is the one I’m concerned about,” a coach told Florio. “Because he’s there. He’s there all the time. He’s getting himself fully immersed, and the concepts that make you a master of the quarterback position — yes, you’ve got to have the physical skills, but it’s also cerebral. The things that allow you to master the quarterback position, once you redirect that to another part of the sport… there are teams that are concerned about it.”
Florio’s main point centered on the difference between Ryan’s day-to-day involvement in Atlanta and Brady’s outside commitments while serving as a minority owner of the Raiders. The coach’s concern wasn’t based on Ryan’s playing résumé alone. It was about what could happen if the same preparation that helped Ryan become an NFL MVP carries into running an organization.
Ryan was named Atlanta’s president of football on Jan. 10, taking over a newly created position with authority over the entire football operation. Both head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Ian Cunningham report directly to Ryan.
The Falcons made Ryan their final decision-maker on football matters after parting with head coach Raheem Morris following the 2025 season. Ryan then helped lead the searches that ended with Stefanski and Cunningham coming to Atlanta.
That made Ryan more than a ceremonial former franchise quarterback returning home. His fingerprints are supposed to be on the direction of the entire operation.
Matt Ryan’s Falcons Starting to Find Their Footing
The early results have been uneven, but Atlanta has started to show signs of turning the corner.
The Falcons opened 0-2 with losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Carolina Panthers before beating the Green Bay Packers 35-14 and New Orleans Saints 45-24 in consecutive prime-time games.
Atlanta is now 2-2 and tied atop the NFC South. The Falcons scored 80 points across those two wins after managing only 16 total points in their first two games.
Those last two performances have looked much closer to what Ryan, Stefanski and Cunningham were hired to build.
Ryan’s history in Atlanta makes the arrangement unusual, too. The Falcons selected him with the No. 3 overall pick in 2008, and he spent 14 seasons as their starting quarterback. He won the NFL MVP award in 2016 and led Atlanta to Super Bowl LI.
Ryan remains the franchise’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown passes. Now the traits that once made him the face of the Falcons are being tested in an entirely different job.
The 2026 season is still only four games old, and two wins don’t prove Atlanta’s new structure will work. But after back-to-back convincing victories, Florio’s report adds an interesting outside perspective to what Ryan is building.
At least one NFL coach isn’t looking at Ryan as a famous former player with a front-office title.
He’s looking at him as someone who might eventually make the Falcons a bigger problem.
Falcons’ Matt Ryan Has NFL Teams ‘Concerned’: Report