John Middlekauff: MNF Pick for Rams vs Falcons, Matt Ryan for Falcons GM?

Let’s start with Monday Night Football, because sometimes you look at a game and the numbers make sense… but the situation doesn’t.

Hard Rock Bet has the Rams favored by 7.5 points on the spread at Atlanta, and on paper, I get it. The Rams are the better team. But I’m taking the Falcons plus the points, because this game has weirdness written all over it.

And when NFL games get weird, they tend to get weird fast.

The Rams are coming off a Thursday night game, so they’ve had long rest. They just fired their special teams coordinator. There’s been a lot of strange stuff surrounding Puka Nacua. Davante is banged up. It’s just one of those spots where if you wake up Tuesday morning and the Falcons either win outright on the moneyline or lose a tight game, you wouldn’t be shocked.

Bijan Robinson is the kind of player who can flip a game if things start leaning in that direction. And if it doesn’t get weird — if Atlanta loses and continues what’s been an ongoing disaster — then we pivot to the bigger Falcons story that came out this weekend.

Matt Ryan for Falcons GM?

Jay Glazer reported that Arthur Blank has reached out to Matt Ryan about potentially joining the Falcons’ front office in a John Elway–type role.

From a storyline standpoint, I love it.

I’ve always said this about elite quarterbacks — Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady — if they wanted to coach, run personnel, or build a team, their football knowledge alone would be incredible. The problem is, those jobs are nothing like playing quarterback.

If Matt Ryan were to take this role, he’d already be behind the eight ball. Elway had run an AFL team. He’d worked in business. He’d been out of the league for over a decade learning different sides of the operation before he took over in Denver. Playing and being an executive are dramatically different jobs.

Look at guys like Mike Vrabel or DeMeco Ryans. They didn’t just show up and get handed power. They started at the bottom and learned the craft.

As a personnel executive, Matt Ryan would suddenly be dealing with agents, cap structures, draft boards, free agency values — things he’s never done. There’s a huge difference between breaking down a defense and setting a draft board. Between negotiating your own contract and being on the other end of that phone call saying, “No, we’re not paying that.”

The key, if Matt Ryan ever did this, would be hiring elite people immediately. Your right-hand guy becomes your pseudo-GM. John Elway had that. John Lynch had that. Lynch is actually a great example — he’d never worked in personnel either, but he’d spent years building relationships, sitting in draft meetings, learning how the machine worked.

Has Matt Ryan done that? Has he been calling GMs asking to sit in draft meetings? If not, you don’t just walk in and figure it out on the fly. That’s not how this league works.

I respect anyone who’s made an ungodly amount of money and still wants to dive into that fire. Because there are no off days. There’s no work-life balance. That stuff doesn’t exist in the NFL, especially for executives.

But if you’re going to do it, you better be 10 toes down, all in, and surrounded by people who know exactly what they’re doing.

And honestly, could it go worse than what the Falcons have been doing? Probably not. That’s what makes it fascinating.

So yeah — I like the Falcons +7.5 on Monday night, because things could get weird. And long-term? The Matt Ryan angle is one of the most interesting storylines this franchise has had in a while.