Matt Ryan on Micah Parsons, Ravens Super Bowl Window & The Best QB’s Today

Former NFL MVP Matt Ryan joins us live from THE PRO Rivals Open to talk golf, football, and everything in between. Ryan shares what it’s like competing against stars from baseball, basketball, and hockey, reflects on his MVP season with Atlanta, and opens up about his transition to TV with The NFL Today. He also weighs in on Micah Parsons contract drama, the biggest Super Bowl contenders, Patrick Mahomes dominance, and whether the NFL should ban the “tush push.” Plus, Ryan gets candid about hanging with legends like John Smoltz, his days at Boston College, and even reacts to the Travis Kelce–Taylor Swift engagement news.

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0:00 – Pro Rivals Golf
3:30 – NFL Today & MVP Reflections
6:38 – Dan Quinn
9:20 – Micah Parson’s Contract Situation
12:18 – Mahomes Is the Best QB
14:20 – Super Bowl Picks & Tush Push

Brian with us right now. Let’s start with golf actually though. Okay. So, you won this last time around. I heard I did. I did. It was all football players uh in the event that I was in. So, it was nice to kind of tick that box. But, uh when you’ve got all all the major sports, all four sports, and even Marty Fish from tennis, a little more talent, a little more Listen, now you’re going to have to play baseball players, real athletes, okay? So, it’s going to be a little bit different for you. You might finish like 20th and there’ll be 19 baseball players and Marty Fish and Pavvelski above you. Okay. He’s amazing, man. He is. But you’re like on on all the social media that all that right now. It’s like last champ Matt Ryan. That’s right. I’m living it up. Living it up. Hopefully maybe I I get hot and can do it again the next two days, but at least for the next two days, I’ll live it up. Who was the biggest threat on the football side when you were in that tournament? I played in the final pairing with uh Ryan Suckup, you know, former kicker, really good player, and Mike Leech, uh long snapper and kind of utility guy. And Mike’s Mike’s actually like the assistant golf coach at William and Mary. And so he’s he’s a good player, man. Really good player. So played with those two guys. There a handful of players that that were kind of in in the mix, but those were the main competition. And now and now main competition. It’s everyone, man. My dad, you know, the the one-on-one matchup that I had today, it was against Suckup. So I You handled him. I think I clipped Yeah, I clipped him today, which was which was a win. Okay, there you go. um for you when you’re in a tournament like this, who are you looking forward to hanging out with, spending some time with? Dude, I got to I got to play with Mark Ripen today. Yeah, he’s great, right? Mark’s awesome. I’ve known Mark a little bit uh in passing and and spent a little bit of time with him, but never played golf with him. Uh I really enjoyed that today. And and you know, as as a kid growing up, I grew up in Philadelphia and I was like six, seven, eight years old when he was killing it with with the Red uh with the Commanders, the Redskins at the time. Um, he’s awesome. He was great. It’s it’s everybody though. It’s honestly I feel like everybody thinks because you play professional sports that you know these guys from other sports and you you don’t, right? And so a lot of them, you know, you get to meet and and hang out with for the first time. So there’s been a ton of ton of guys that I’ve enjoyed getting to know. Are you a big fan of other sports? Like what other sports did you watch either growing up or now? So I I grew up I played football, basketball, and baseball all the way through high school. So a huge basketball fan, huge baseball fan. Um, then I went to school up in Boston and got to hang out with our hockey players at BC and got into hockey and watching it. So, I’m into everything, man. Like, if it’s on, I enjoy watching. Playoff hockey is incredible. Playoff basketball is great. I’m a Braves guy now. Uh, I’ve been in Atlanta so long. So, to see like Glavin, uh, you got Maddox out here, Smold, spend time with those guys, it’s it’s special. AJ Kzinski. Yeah, that’s right. Short time. Did you hang out with the Atlanta athletes? Like, did you hang out with the with the Braves guys or Yeah. So, I knew like uh when I was kind of coming to Brian McCann’s here. Brian McCann was uh he was with the Braves when I first got to Atlanta. Jeff Rancor, he was still with the Braves at the time when I first got down there. I knew those guys really well. Played a ton of golf with them. Uh I know Smoltzy well uh from playing golf in Atlanta and just seeing him out and about at different things and uh yeah, so I mean you get to know them pretty well. Mhm. Lost the Thrashers though at one point, right? They were there 2010. Thrashers. I just forgot. I was like, “Wait, do they have a hockey?” They got the Atlanta FC now. The football the soccer team. Yeah, Atlanta. Yeah, they’re a big They’re a big deal now. All right. What do you got for football this year? Are you excited for the uh the TV life? I am, man. Working on the NFL today. I get to work with Bill Cower and Nate Berles, James Brown. Those guys are incredible. And uh we’re launching a new thing called NFL Today Plus, which is streaming on Paramount Plus for like two hours leadup to it. So, I’ll be on that as well. So, looking forward to it. football. I’m biased, but I feel like fall is like when football season starts. Playoffs for baseball are right around the corner. It’s like the best time of the year. So, uh, I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a great year. The NFL is, I mean, it’s unbelievable right now. The parody in the AFC. You got all the quarterbacks in the NFC. What’s Philly going to do? Can they repeat? Uh, it’s going to be a ton of fun to watch. I’m big fan of the quarterbacks in the league right now, man. We got some really, really good young quarterbacks. It’s gonna be fun to watch. I got to ask, uh, can you match Nate Berles’s wardrobe? I can’t. Nate is, uh, I I don’t even try to be honest. I mean, he wears something and you’re like, I know I can’t pull that off, but he looks good doing it. Nate has the confidence to like do it, too. Like, I wouldn’t be confident enough to sit there and be staring at the screen like this and see it myself on TV in like a mustard yellow suit. I also probably don’t have the skin complexion to do it. Nate’s got that he’s got that good skin to be able to do it. So, uh, he’s the best, though. Nate’s He’s a ton of fun to work with. You can ask his stylist, be like, “Hey, if you want to throw me some ideas, I’ll I’ll be open. I’ll run into the neutrals, man.” Yeah. Keep it simple. I’ll just keep it very simple, you know, nice cut, good tie, something like that. But not not Just make sure the tie pops. That’s right. Just make sure the tie pops. Looks I agree. What did you think of the media when you were a player, and what do you think of them now? Well, it’s changed so much. Like when I first got into the league, I mean there was no there was no social media, right? So I mean no Twitter, no Instagram, no, you know, whatever. None of that stuff. Uh so it was it was a little more intimate at the beginning, right? It was like your beat writers, you get to know them and and you know, sometimes you have national people coming in. So the the entire landscape has changed a bunch, but I always had I always had good relationships. like I I felt like, you know, understood they had a job to do, you know, give them what they they need to get. I would be sometimes honest, sometimes a little bit guarded, right? That’s part of part of it. But, um, I always had good relationships with everybody I work with. That’s why you’re in the media now. That’s right. It’s why you’re in the media. It helps. Tell people. Tell people. You don’t understand. MVP. You went MVP with 2016. 2016. Yep. What was that like? It was pretty good. It was not bad, right? It was It was a good season. I wish we had a Super Bowl ring to go with. I wasn’t going to go I wasn’t going to bring that I wasn’t going to bring that up. I think sometimes you got to get I met Brady about 10 days ago. Yeah, he mentioned it. He said if you see Matt Ryan somewhere down the road, just let him bring it up. Yeah, just make sure you bring it up, Tom. Appreciate it, Tom. You could you could have just tossed one my way, Ryan. But no, it was uh that year was was awesome and disappointing at the end for sure. But um you know, the the way we played offensively, I played with some great guys, too, right? And so our offense was was very dynamic that year. DQ Dan Quinn. So people don’t know that I don’t think I’ve ever told the story on here. Dan Quinn was at Florida, University of Florida. And then he went to the Seahawks. Okay. And he needed he wanted to wear baseball turfs because he didn’t like the football shoes that Nike was supplying him. So my friend is the equipment guy in Seattle. He goes, “Hey, can you send me some of your turfs?” So I sent DQ turfs. And he wore them for a year. I I would send him when he was in Seattle. I would send him the little wear running around on the field for years. Yeah. Now he’s switched. He’s out there swagging it out. He’s got Jordans on. Oh, yeah. It’s a little different than the turfs that you sent him. Still got the hat backwards, you know, the whole the man though. I mean, he’s like uh he’s done an amazing job in Washington, but just like you talk about he’s like the ultimate players coach in the way that like you’ll run through the wall for him, but he holds you accountable and like it can be tough, too. You know, he’s that perfect balance of the two. He’s doing an awesome job in Washington. Doesn’t hurt that they got Jane Daniels as well. Yeah, he’s pretty good. Yeah, not bad. Have you followed Bichc’s story and now what do you think he’s going to do at UNCC? I listen, I think he’s going to be successful, man. I feel like anybody who played in the league during that time, right? If you were to sit here and say this guy’s not going to be a good coach in college, you’d be lying, right? Because you went against him. You saw the way that he schemed, his ability to bring a team together, get them to buy in and maximize talent uh that he has. I think he’ll do a good job. College is so different, but um you know, his knowledge of of game planning and and and teaching and honestly, you’ve seen a lot of that, right? You’ve had more access to see him coaching now than you ever did in New England and and to kind of hear him on the field and hear how he interacts with those guys. I think he’ll do a good job. Mhm. You would have been rich in college nowadays. I’m not complaining about how my life worked out. Everything worked out crazy now. Why BC? Uh cuz cuz BC wasn’t a powerhouse when you went there. No. No. I mean they were we were good, you know, like they were when I got there, they were kind of like in that 20 to 30 range, right? 20. You were always kind of ranked somewhere in there. Um but we had four or five different guys that left DC and were in the NFL. So we had both Hasselback brothers. Brian St. Pierre before I got there, he played like six, seven years in the league. Fluty was still in the league at that point. And so, I mean, when you look at schools that popped out quarterbacks at the time, they might not have been first rounders, but BC did a pretty good job with that. I was only a three-star recruit. And so, I needed a place to go to be able to develop and and uh BC kind of let me do that. What were the other candidates? Do you remember? I was between Iowa and Boston College. Uh so, good thing you got to Iowa because you had literally learned how to hand say power, you know, maybe throw it a handful of times a game, but uh it all worked out. It worked out well. Mhm. And this season, what do you think’s the top drama heading into the season right now that’s gonna like lead off NFL today? I think it’s in Dallas, man. Gosh, are we gonna get this contract done or what? Like, are we I feel like Micah has put his kind of feet in the ground and said, “Listen, this I want out.” You know, I always I felt like his everybody can make comments, right? Like when they’re going through a negotiation or something like that and and as a player, it doesn’t really phase you, right? Because, you know, there’s kind of posturing on both sides. His felt different though, like the the things that he said, the things that he was disappointed with kind of the back door the back door uh room negotiations without his agent being there. To me, it was like it just doesn’t it doesn’t feel the same as some of the other ones. And uh I don’t know. I feel like both sides have kind of dug their feet in the dirt. They should get it done. They should have got it done a year and a half ago, but um but they didn’t. And now it’s gonna it’s Where does he go though? Well, that becomes a question, right? like what what can you possibly do with him in terms of trade value? Uh and you’ve seen at least I’ve seen I can’t you can’t substantiate kind of any of these rumors, but like you’ve seen some of the packages that are put together. It’s a lot of pieces, man. Draft capital players, all of that stuff, but if you’re like a Commanders or something like that where you might feel like you’re a dynamic pass rusher away and you’ve got this young window with a rookie quarterback contract to go for it, I can see my man Dan Quinn being aggressive and doing it. Okay. Yeah, because they have Jaden Daniels on the rookie quarterback. Correct. Right. So, they got four more years. Four more years with that window and uh you’ve got an opportunity to to kind of sign somebody big. Are you a Swifty? Uh I mean, yes. I mean, my wife is So, she got engaged. Did you hear they officially announced her today while you’re out there golfing? No, I’ve been dialed in. I’ve been locked in trying to grind out a score. I had no idea engagement is official. It’s announced real. Wow. So, so I take back what I said about Micah Parsons. The biggest storyline for the NFL season is Travis and Taylor being engaged, man. So, is she good for the NFL? Yes. Because more people watch because of her% 100%. I think so. He’s converted a ton of NFL fans not paying much attention, right? Yes. And and we’ve got the hardcore crazies and and all those things. I think expanding the reach is great. Uh and yeah, I think it’s good for the league. Mahomes good because I mean he gets No, no, I don’t mean good. But I’m just saying because it just fatigue from seeing him and Kelsey and Chris Jones that thing always in the Super Bowl always the numbers last year are not going to be eyepopping. The fact that they won the number of games that they won with the number of comebacks that they had given kind of how that roster was set up and how they were built up front, man. That’s what that’s what great players do, right? They put organizations on their back and they find ways to win. So for me it’s like throw the numbers out. Maybe people are fatigued with him just continuing to win, but man, he is he’s great. I mean, who’s the best one right now? Best QB. I mean, you the best QB in the league right now. It’s impossible to say. It’s it’s it’s impossible to say he’s not. I I think there’s a ton of other really really good players. You got Josh Allen. You got Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, you got Jaden Daniels coming up. You got a million different guys. And I honestly think it’s about as deep in the top 15 or 20 guys as it’s been in a long, long time. But it’s kind of like Brady, man. Mahomes wins more than any of these other guys. And he does it so consistently. He does it in all kinds of different ways. To me, there’s no way you can’t say he’s not the best. So So your show and really the pregame shows, they they really spread the rock. They cover a lot of the different teams and storylines going on. Do you think there there’s too much in the daily talk shows of like the Shador Sanders kind of conversation going on where it’s like, hey, let’s focus on, you know, the the good teams and the bigger storylines going on and not so much on, you know, someone who’s got a famous name and might not be a factor at all this year. Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s it’s hard, right? Because there is it’s a lot of people clicking in when when you’re talking about those things. And so to say that you’re not going to talk about it, you do need to talk about the relevant topics. I just from my perspective I go to like the players hat and it’s like I want to talk about I want to talk about like the teams that are really going to be in the mix and the Browns may be I have no idea but it doesn’t seem like they’re going to be in the mix. So, you know, we’ll see how it is. I can also talk about my boy Joe Flacco who got drafted in the same class as me. They’re still doing it. Yeah. Point starter. Like that’s an incredible storyline to be 40 years old and to be going out there uh and starting for an organization and still playing at a high level. It’s uh it’s really impressive. Well, you pivot, by the way. Was that a nice pivot to not answer the question? That was really good. That was really good. That’s a TV. That’s a TV veteran right there. But that exactly said it. You want to spread the rock? You want to talk about some of the other cool story lines? All right. Well, good luck. No, no, hold up, hold up, hold up. I got a couple more questions. Yeah. Yeah. Who wins a who wins a Super Bowl this year? You got to put them on the spot. I mean, I love that question. As we said in August, so many different things can happen. That’s so easy, though. It’s like when we do it in spring training, they say, “Who’s going to win the World Series?” And I picked the Braves and they’re last good pick. Yeah. Uh listen, I think I I’ll say this. I think the Ravens I think it’s they’re coming into their time, right? I look at that roster. I think they’re really, really deep. I think Lamar at some point’s going to get over the hump. I just think he’s too good. And then honestly, I think in the NFC, you look at Philadelphia, they they got a couple pieces that are gone, but for the most part, the nucleus of that team is back on both sides of the ball, front seven, and they physically dominated people during the playoffs. So, I think it’s kind of trending in that, right? A lot of people have to stay healthy. A lot of things have to happen, but I could picture a Baltimore Philadelphia Super Bowl. Should they ban the tush bush? Uh, that was a big discussion this offseason. If you were a quarterback, they were shoving you forward. You’ve gained a couple rush push guy. man. They say like Jaylen squats like, you know, 700 lb. I I might have been lucky to get three plates on the bar on both sides, but uh yeah. No, I was I was I was a big quarterback sneak guy, but I don’t think they should ban it. I mean, that’s just unless there’s data to say it’s like dangerous, which I don’t think they have. Um, I don’t think you should just, you know, kick out one play cuz one team’s better at it than everybody else.