Falcons To Explore Extension For QB Matt Ryan This Offseason

Falcons owner Arther Blank said Friday that he plans to financially reward QB Matt Ryan for his MVP-caliber season.

“He needs to be compensated well, certainly,” Blank told Vaughn McClure of ESPN. “And he will be.”

Earlier in the week, Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff mentioned that an extension for Ryan would be explored sooner than later.

“I think those are things we’re going to continue to talk about in the offseason,” Dimitroff said. “Obviously, Matt has done an excellent job. We want him to be here for many, many, many years. It will be on our radar sometime in the near future.”

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported a few weeks ago that Atlanta and Ryan are expected to explore an extension during the offseason, even though Ryan has another two years remaining on his current deal, so this doesn’t come as a big surpirse.

Rapoport said that Ryan’s next contract could possibly surpass Andrew Luck‘s contract and make Ryan the highest-paid player in the NFL.

Ryan has put together an MVP season and has the Falcons one win away from a Super Bowl title, which explains why the team would be willing to renegotiate his deal, despite the fact that there are multiple years remaining on the contract agreement. The benefit for the Falcons is that they would be able to reduce his $23.75 million cap figure to something more team friendly by including a signing bonus.

Ryan, 31, is a former first-round pick of the Falcons back in 2008. He’s currently in the fourth year of his six-year, $103.75 million contract that includes $59 million guaranteed and stands to make base salaries of $15.75 million and $19.25 million over the remainder of the contract.

In 2016, In 2016, Ryan threw for 4,944 yards while completing 69.9 percent of his passes to go along with 38 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 3 quarterback out of 36 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding a new contract for Ryan as the news is available.