Forgive or forget, Michael Vick has earned the right to be forgiven

Forgive or forget, Michael Vick has earned the right to be forgiven by Joe Beasley

Matt Ryan entered into Thursday nights matchup only 346 yards short of 50,000 passing yards in his career, he ended just 34 yards short.

At age 34, Matt Ryan will be the youngest quarterback to eclipse this milestone and Atlanta Falcons fans will still have plenty of more years with Ryan at quarterback.

As a fan, in the shadows of Thanksgiving, we should all be thankful that we have had stability and consistency at the quarterback position.

In an interview with ESPN, Ryan displayed how special this occasion is for him:

“To be able to hopefully get to 50,000 yards is something that, playing at Penn Charter when I was in high school running the triple-option and throwing the ball six times a game, did not seem realistic. So to kind of be in this position now, it goes so fast. It would be very special for me, personally. “Anytime you’re on a list with those other guys, that’s pretty cool. You have images of [some] of those guys in your head from when you were a kid, and that’s who you grew up idolizing.”

Even after Ryan surpasses 50,000 yards against the Panthers on December 8th, with a great end-of-the-year finish for Ryan, he can still jump one more spot higher to ninth on the all-time passing list by seasons end, though this is unlikely and will have to wait until 2020.

John Elway is currently ninth all-time with 51,475 passing yards which is roughly 1,500 yards ahead of Matt Ryan on the all-time list. That means Matt Ryan would have to average 377 yards per game over the Falcons final four games to get there.

From 2019 to onward, the Atlanta Falcons will bare witness to the growing list of achievements that will cement Matt Ryan’s place in Canton, Ohio when his career is all said and done.

While Matt Ryan may not have the skill sets as a Patrick Mahomes or a Lamar Jackson, don’t think for a second that Matt Ryan isn’t one of the best quarterbacks in the league in 2019 and going forward.