Freddie Falcon
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
- 1,593
- 2
Getty Images
Matt Ryan has plenty of weapons at his disposal, but none more potent than his grasp of the obvious.
The Falcons quarterback said during an appearance on ESPN (via the team’s official website) that the team needed to not start in a deep hole like they did last year, and score points.
“It’s going to be important for us to get off to a fast start,” Ryan said. “[To] make sure that at the beginning of the year we’re right in the mix so that when we get those division games late in the year, we’ve got a chance to separate or do what we need to do.”
Empirically speaking, not starting 1-7 the way they did last year has been shown to be helpful to teams.
But especially with Tom Brady moving into the NFC South and adding Rob Gronkowski to a Buccaneers team that already had Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, Ryan knows keeping pace offensively is imperative.
“In terms of what we need to do offensively, we’re obviously going to have to score some points,” Ryan said. “There’s some great offenses in our division. We’ve got to focus on that, going out week in and week out and get touchdowns when we get in the red area.”
The Falcons averaged 23.8 points per game last year, 13th in the league. Since then, they swapped out running back Todd Gurley and tight end Hayden Hurst for the departed Devonta Freeman and Austin Hooper.
Whether that’s enough to keep pace with the Saints and Bucs (or to a lesser degree Teddy Bridgewater and Christian McCaffrey and the Panthers) remains to be seen.