Getty Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons.
Welcome to the offseason ladies and gents and soon, it will be a dead zone once the Super Bowl is over. With no more Falcons football for another seven months, we’ll be looking at every possible trade featuring Matt Ryan. Maybe we’re wasting our time here, but after Matthew Stafford went to the Rams in a surprising blockbuster trade, you never know who could be next.
Ryan has been a staple to Atlanta Falcons fans and an outstanding quarterback over the years, but he will turn 36 this year without a Super Bowl ring and deserves a fresh start elsewhere. Meanwhile, Atlanta deserves to start over from scratch with a new head coach taking over.
Chicago Bears’ beat reporter Ryan Heckman for Fansided listed three “splash” deals for a potential Bears-Falcons trade to acquire Ryan and we’ll take a look at each one.
Trade No. 1
For Heckman’s first trade deal, the Bears would acquire Matt Ryan and a 2021 fourth-round pick and in return, the Falcons would get Chicago’s 2021 first and sixth-round pick along with 2022’s first and a third-round pick.
This could be a quality trade with this year’s draft class stacked with plenty of QB talent. The Falcons have the No. 4 overall pick and could use that to get the “best player available” possible which could be Oregan’s star offensive tackle, Penei Sewell. And then look to pick No. 10 for a future franchise quarterback like Trey Lance out of North Dakota State. That would kill two birds with one stone on positions Atlanta needs to fill.
And another first-round pick in 2022 could help out as Atlanta starts a complete re-build that could take a couple of seasons and plenty of draft capital.
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Trade No. 2
Under Heckman’s trade number two deal, the Falcons deal Chicago Matt Ryan in exchange for cornerback Kyle Fuller, 2021’s first-round pick, and 2022’s second-round pick.
With acquiring one of the best cornerbacks in the league this season and another first-round pick this year…the Falcons would now be killing three birds with one stone.
Fuller, 28, would add some much-needed veteran talent to a Falcons weak defense. He ended the 2020 season with one interception, one forced fumble, and 8 pass breakups with 52 solo tackles. He has been named All-Pro twice in 2019 and again in 2018 along with first-team All-Pro.
The Falcons drafted cornerback AJ Terrell last NFL draft out of Clemson, but he still needs a bit more experience and he likely won’t sprout until his third year like most rookies. Still, he’ll enter 2021 as Atlanta’s top corner. Terrell and Fuller could be a terrifying duo like Fuller
and his teammate Jaylon Johnson and were at the beginning of the 2020 season.
Trade No. 3
Heckman’s third and final deal would have Matt Ryan and Atlanta’s 2021 fourth-round pick headed to Chicago and in return, the Falcons receive Bears’ QB Nick Foles, their 2021 first and third-round pick, and 2022’s first-round pick.
The Falcons will be picking their future QB in this year’s draft, no doubt. But acquiring Foles would give Atlanta the veteran QB mentorship any rookie signal-caller needs. To end the season, Foles completed 65.4 percent of his passes for 1,852 yards, 10 touchdowns, and eight interceptions in seven starts.
The Falcons have Kurt Benkert, but he is still very young and inexperienced so having Foles around to fill take over Matt Schaub’s spot wouldn’t be so bad.
Matt Ryan isn’t a washed-up veteran, he’s going to be costly and while it will be hard to get out of his contract this year, anything seems possible, so let’s keep speculating to keep us entertained until the 2021 season.
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Falcons Trade Rumors: How Matt Ryan to Bears Would Benefit Atlanta