Houston (AFP) – A decision to overhaul his off-season training program has paid dividends for Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan as he prepares to crown the best year of his career with victory in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The 31-year-old Falcons star has long been regarded as one of the National Football League’s top quarterbacks, while never quite managing to force himself into the same elite bracket as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger.
But the man known to his teammates as “Matty Ice” is just one win away from forcing his way into that club after a dazzling season with the Falcons that left him as front-runner for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award.
Ryan piled up 4,944 passing yards over the season, with 38 touchdowns, averaging 9.26 yards per completion — the highest in NFL history — and earning a league best passer-rating of 117.1.
If he manages to lead the Falcons to a win over the New England Patriots on Sunday, Ryan will owe a debt of gratitude to Los Angeles-based throwing gurus Tom House and Adam Dedeaux.
House, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, and Dedeaux, a former pitcher at the University of Southern California, have carved out a successful business in helping quarterbacks improve their throwing mechanics.
– True grit –
Ryan went to work with the duo in order to improve his range of passing, specifically long throws.
The months of hard work are revealed in analysis of Ryan’s throwing statistics.
This season, he made 17 completions of 40 yards or longer; in 2015, that number was only nine.
Similarly, he made 69 completions above 20 yards, compared to 49 a year earlier.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn paid tribute to the “grit” of Ryan in taking his game to a new level.
“It’s a challenging task when you’re already playing at a really high level, how do you go to a higher one? Well he nailed that,” Quinn said.
“That’s having grit — when you can do something over and over and over again and not back off the passion that you’re going after it with.”
Dedeaux and House have also worked with Ryan’s opposite number on Sunday, Patriots star Brady. The Falcons quarterback admits he has tried to model elements of his career on the four-time Super Bowl-winner.
“I think every quarterback who has played in this league, they have all tried to emulate things that Tom does,” Ryan said this week.
“He has been so consistent. To me, the biggest thing and the thing that has most impressive is his consistency throughout the years.
“He has just played so well for so long. He works extremely hard, he’s incredibly committed to being great and those are things that I think I’ve tried to do as well.”
Ryan also maintains he is unfazed by the pressure of his first Super Bowl appearance.
“You learn what works best for you at handling big situations and, for me, I feel like my preparation during the week, the way that I prepare, the process that I have, allows me to be comfortable in big situations and to just do the things that you’ve prepared yourself to do,” he said.
“And I feel like that’s going to help us out on Sunday.”
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