Matt Ryan on the Dan Patrick Show Full Interview | 07/10/25

All right, we make way for Matty Ice. And I ran into him last night and he said, “I’m going to be telling all kinds of stories when I join you on the program. Is uh is Matt ready to go, Paul?” Yes. Do we need to escort Matt Ryan up here? How about a round of applause for the man they call Matty Ice? Tall and lean. What’s up? Yes. Look at this guy. How we doing, guys? Looks like he’s dropped like 15, 20 pounds. You’re you’re just an a we see this with offensive and defensive linemen. Do I need headset? No. No. Okay. Good. All right. Uh yeah, just um not as muscular, a little softer around the edges, but a little lighter. But did you try to purposely bulk up when I played? Yeah. Oh, yeah. For sure. For me, it was always difficult to keep the weight on um just by kind of, you know, my frame or whatever. It was it was work to try and get to 220, 217 is what I played at. I probably I weigh about 205 now. So, but you you just see quarterbacks like ragdolls, but then you see those quarterbacks in person and like Trevor Lawrence is a big guy. No doubt. You seen him last night. I mean Trevor is I mean he is put together and and just broad shouldered big and you know we were talking about Cam Newton last night too. Same thing. Played against him in division. I remember meeting him for the first time being like we play the same position. What what are you talking about man? You look like the DNS that I go against. So yes. Uh yeah, it’s it’s there’s some some big guys, but you know, I was able to do it pretty well at at at my size and and made it work for me. But is there you know, you see Payton and and Brady and they would kind of go in the fetal position if they were going to be sacked. Yeah. That’s okay, isn’t it? Listen, your your best ability is availability, right? When you can play, right? And so Tom and and Payton, they they kind of had that down to a science. I, you know, I was kind of in that that era of quarterbacks just right after them, right? So I had watched them play in the NFL for seven, eight years, nine years before I got there and then, you know, played I guess Tom played longer than me. He still was playing after I was done. But do you think he could still play? I think he could. I mean, I think the way he takes care of himself, it looks like he looks he looks more fit now than he’s ever ever been. And so, you know, and I think the style with which he played leads to being able to play longer, right? not moving around, not having to run, do all those type of different things because he could still throw it. I mean, he could still spin it at the end. Uh Matt sacked 500 times, Paulie. Uh 488 times he was sacked in his career. Why would that’s But you still feel pretty good. Look at Yeah, I still feel pretty good. I can still swing the golf club, which is good. And is there one that stands out? One sack that stands out? Uh, I mean, they all kind of run together when you got about 500 of them, but uh, I’d say the sack fumble in the Super Bowl is probably the one that Oh, I wasn’t going there. Listen, I think sometimes I think sometimes you got to get in front of it, right? You’re the guy, you just got to go and get in front of it. No, I So, if you’re asking me about one of them, Dan, I would probably say that’s the one I would like to have not been sacked on. But anyhow, uh, what else do you guys want to talk about? college football playoff. What What was that play called? So, you’re in the huddle and you call that play. What is it? Uh, that’s a good question. I don’t remember the exact play call off hand. I I I’m always amazed some of these guys that that can rip back from, you know, just off the couch. Well, your guys memories have to be great. It’s really good. I remember the situation. I remember what the route we had going on. We had Aldrick Robinson running the corner that was coming out like the top of this and he was going to be open like he was he was going to be open and trying to hang on for that extra second give him a chance to make a play. But would that have been a touchdown? Uh it would have been a chunk. I I I think there was a chance but it would have been a chunk play for sure. But you don’t remember the call. But uh I can’t. It was a it was a designer what we call designer calls. So it was like a specific play for that week for that situation. So it wasn’t like um you know gun trips right three jet jaws xdrift which was one of our our staple plays. It was a designer play for that week. Give us give us a call though that would might surprise us the depth of it that you’re trying to absorb if you’re you know wide receiver running back. Yeah. I mean there’s I’m trying to think of staple plays but like where it gets wordy is in the run game uh than canning or killing or checking or whatever you want to a pass play. So, you know, we’d have like Westright Zoomsy, right? 19 Wanda to Force Can, you know, uh, can gun, three scat, you know, Xhole spacing. That’s one play. That’s one play. And so, damn. You know, I mean, it’s I heard you read the the little script coming on here. That was more impressive to me than calling a play. Right. Now that I’ve done TV and I’ve seen the prompter and having to come in and and and done uh some of those things, I find that far more difficult than than regurgitating a play call. Matt Ryan joining us on the program. Yeah. You start to think about making the transition. When did you think about going from playing to then broadcasting? You know, I had Listen, I’ve always had fun coming on shows with you or or with different guys. And I I had the opportunity a couple times while I was playing to go in and do some studio work. one with CBS, one with uh ESPN, and uh I enjoyed it, but I really didn’t think about it until I was done, you know, and and my last year in Indie was a difficult year uh for the organization, for myself, for uh everybody that was in it. And so, um after that, I got back to Atlanta after that season and and was kind of talking with my wife about what we wanted to do moving forward. My wife was pregnant with my youngest son at the time. Uh, and it seemed like, you know what, probably a good time to be rooted and and home. And uh, and that’s where we started to explore some options. I was really lucky. Got hired by CBS called Games for the first year, which was an absolute blast. Uh, ton of fun doing that, and then moved into the studio uh, the next year. So, it kind of happened faster than I thought. It wasn’t something like I was planning as a player. This is it. This is where I’m going when I’m done. I was, you know, wondering about this though. But when you get towards the end of when do you know you’re at the end of your career? Uh there were a handful of times in India I knew it was this is this is this is probably it. Okay. But but was it because of you? Listen I I still think I had gas left in the tank right to to be able to play. Um that year was a a strange year like Frank Wright being fired and Jeff Saturday coming in and I got benched and then came back and played a little bit and and just kind of the whole the whole deal. Um, and then being away, my wife was pregnant, uh, with my youngest son, so they were back in Atlanta. She was there kind of visiting with doctors there, and they were back and forth. That whole kind of thing, it wasn’t like a a wake up. It was just kind of a slow drip to, you know, and I think my life’s moving in a different direction. Did you ever think about trying to join the Eagles? Uh, I no, never seriously. Never seriously. But that’s your team growing up. I grew up, but like I played against them enough that they soon did not become my team, right? So, uh, we played for the Steelers. Could I have played for the Steelers? Uh, yeah. Like, I think your allegiances, your childhood allegiances, Yeah. go out the wayside the minute you get drafted or you get, you know, you put into a building. And so, um, particularly I think when you play for an organization as long as I did, uh, in Atlanta, you know, my We got a little chipmunk running around there. You got some wildlife on the good. We had dogs. He had bomb sniffing dogs up here earlier. Yeah, we got it all going on here. I love it. Yeah. Uh we’re talking to Matt Ryan. Uh I was wondering about Kurt Cousins in the situation that he’s in. Yep. Now, you said he was kind of blindsided with the whole Michael Pennix draft pick. What do you do in a situation? Now, he you can’t feel sorry for him from the standpoint of $100 million guarantee. Sure. But he does want to play. Yeah. I don’t know if he No, no other team was interested because of the $und00 million guarantee. Yeah. I mean, that’s that is Listen, I I get both sides of it, right? I get um I get the frustration from Kirk’s end, right? You you would you would hope for transparency coming into a situation of what the plan is moving forward. Hey, why are you bringing me in? Is there, you know, what what kind of runway are we looking at here with with myself? Um, I think from the Falcons perspective, that was such a deep draft at quarterback, you know, and and I think that as I’ve been removed as a player, my player side of me goes right to Kirk of, of course, I’d be pissed, too, right? You know, you’re in that situation. I think that’s a natural competitor’s reaction like, what are we doing? We’ve got other spots we could go. You’ve heard other quarterbacks say that in buildings where they’ve been established and they’re drafting young quarterbacks, saying, what are we doing? We can add value at different spots. So, I think Kirk coming in feeling like he had a four or five year runway uh to play there and then them going in a different direction was probably difficult is difficult for him. But I get the organization standpoint because I do think, you know, when you look at last year’s draft, the depth of that quarterback position and then projecting forward, right, what the next two or three drafts are going to look like and hoping that you’re not in a position to draft early, it’s the position you’ve got to take care of. And if if you’re defending the Falcons, which you know, I’m biased cuz I’m played there so long and root for them and all those kind of things, you have to get that position right. Right. And and and you have to get it right. And when you’ve got the opportunity to acquire somebody who I think is really talented, I think Michael Penn has a lot of talent and and uh I think he played really well at the end of the year, you got to do it. But how did the NerS miss on Tre Lance? How does that happen? Well, they’re not the only ones who have missed on quarterbacks high up there. That’s when you trade up and you whiff on a guy. Yeah, it’s uh and I just thought he didn’t have enough starts. I needed a larger sample size. Well, you know, you go specifically to a Michael Penn. I think one of the things you look at when you draft a guy like that is yes, there were injury concerns and knee and and those kind of things, but there was there was a large body of work. Indiana, right? and and I remember the old Bill Parcels’s, you know, the the checklist for drafting quarterbacks was three-year starters and all this and you know, whatever the checklist was, but it was he wanted a sample size and I think that’s gotten increasingly more difficult. You guys were talking about the college football playoff coming in, but the portal, people moving around, people getting out of there more and more. I think it’s hard to get a big sample size of quarterbacks at this point. When you look at your resume, do you see Hall of Famer? I I’ve been asked this and I I don’t think there’s any great way to to kind of donate. I I’m proud of what I did. Um, you know, and it’s not for for me to decide. I’m I’m But if you were going to convince me, if I were going to convince you, let’s say I’m a voter. The numbers are pretty good. Well, you got the MVP. Sure. And you played in the Super Bowl. Yep. If you win the It all goes back to that sack, Dan. It all goes back to that sack. All right. That one sack you wanted to talk about. Didn’t you have one of the great completions that people forget about towards the end of that game? I was one half of that. The other half was pretty good, too. Julio Jones was pretty good on the other end of that. It It’s There’s so many like plays that got forgotten in Super Bowls. Yeah. Because you didn’t win. Seattle. Who was the guy the uh uh Yes. forgotten. Yeah. one of the great catchers in Super Bowl history. And we’re like, “Oh, yeah, that’s right.” And Julio made that grab and I go, “He just won the Super Bowl.” It’s kind of what I was thinking myself at the time, but uh it didn’t quite shake out that way. But um I think you’re a Hall of Famer, but you know, it’s tricky. Like somebody says, “Is Russell Wilson a Hall of Famer? Is Philip Rivers a Hall of Famer?” Like I I would never want to vote on this because this is you’re changing lives. Sure. Sure. So, you got whatever 45 guys who are in there arguing back and forth and then, you know, you start to promote and then you denigrate somebody and like, is Russell Wilson playing himself out of the Hall of Fame with the way he’s played since Denver and, you know, now with Pittsburgh and then New York? Yeah. Uh, I I mean, I think you talk about his body of work and the consistency for the better part of a decade and what they did in Seattle. I mean, yeah, I think there’s a lot of guys that that probably didn’t play. You think of Joe Nameoth or or Johnny Unidas in different uniforms at the end. They’re Hall of Famers, right? And and they certainly didn’t play themselves out of it. Um, but you know, I I think when you talk about Russ, there was so much that he did, he was so consistent for so long. Uh I to me whether it’s the Hall of Fame discussion or whether it’s players or whatever, the thing I’ve always been most impressed with is guys that do it for a long time at the same level over and over and over and you can you can kind of checkmark what they’re going to do when they go out there and perform. I think that’s one of the things regardless of sport that I’ve always admired. Well, you look at Eli, Eli’s numbers are average. Clutch. Clutch. Yes. Yes. He beat Tom Brady twice. Yes. That’s why he’s a Hall of Famer. I’ll put everybody in, man. I’m I’m I’ll put everybody in there. Joe Flacco going in. Uh well, I love Joe. I love Joe, but uh and Joe is a good friend of mine. But uh a Philip Rivers Hall of Famer, I believe. So, yeah. I mean, you talk about it is a really interesting time. The league was changing, right? You go from the mid 2000s to to really 2020 and the league changed into that pass first type of offense and you have about eight or 10 guys that put up numbers that are in the top 10 if the history of the league during that short period of time. I don’t know if we’ll see that. I don’t know if careers will go as long as as they did as as the style of quarterback play evolves, right? And exposure to hits and running and and and those kind of things. And you’ve seen passing yards come down uh in the last three or four or five years, right? It’s not, you know, we went to this 17th game and you’re thinking everybody’s going to be throwing for over 5,000 yards. You just don’t see it. Uh, and so I think the league has evolved into, you know, how they’re running the football and I I think it’s bring those passing numbers down. So I think the numbers, it was an interesting time and I think there were a lot of good really good passers uh in the league at that time. Okay. Can I make this statement? You can make any statement you want. Okay. I I I want to know if you agree that Mahomes isn’t the best quarterback in the NFL, but he’s the quarterback you would want in the biggest game. It’s a there’s a lot to that statement. Uh the second part, yes. Right. His track record, I believe, has proven that. Although the Super Bowl, they they didn’t have their best performance this this past year. But for me, you know, personally, that doesn’t change my opinion of of Patrick Mahomes, right? If if you roll out the ball in the biggest of the big games, Yeah. I think he’s the guy that you’re going to take. How, you know, I think h how are you pigeon holeing that first part of the statement, though? Who’s the best quarterback in regular season quarterback? Who is the best quarterback in the NFL? That’s a great question. I think you probably still have to go with Patrick Mahomes. I mean, you look you look at what they did last year. See, I would say Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow’s excellent. I mean, Joe Burrow’s everything to get them into the playoffs and and could have been an MVP candidate. He played that well. I certainly agree with you. I think Joe or Lamar Jackson. And I’m the opinion I think the league’s in a great spot right now with quarterback play. Like, I really do. I think it’s it’s really good. But if you’re asking me one regular season game, I’ll take Patrick. I’ll take Patrick Mahomes. All right, fair enough. It’s just a It’s just an opinion. Yeah. What’s your jacket size for the Hall of Fame? 40. It’s like a 42. Too long. Okay. That’s what I thought. You good with that? That’s what I told him. That’s what you uh Great to see you again. Good to see you, Dan. He’s Matt Ryan. Thank you, guys. He promised he was telling stories today. My thanks to Matt Ryan, the former MVP, former rookie of the year as well. He joined us courtesy of Bet MGM and Marriott, making fantasy football dreams a reality. Anybody who links their Bet MGM rewards and Marriott Bonvoy accounts between July 9th and the 30th can enter the sweep stakes and win your whole uh league VIP stay at the Cosmopolitan dinner at the Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio and an unforgettable draft night party inside BET MGM hosted by none other than Matt Ryan.