One knock on Matt Ryan during his first years as a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons was that he could not throw the deep ball.

There was a consensus among writers and fans that he did not possess the arm strength to push the ball down the field. Others thought it was it

his then offensive coordinators Mike Murlarkey’s fault as he was more of a run first type coordinator.

Matt Ryan heard everyone’s complaint, but instead of running from the noise he simply worked on that portion of his game.

During the 2012 offseason Matt Ryan added some additional muscle most notably to his arms. He looked more athletic and his head coach Mike Smith acknowledged his arm had gotten stronger. His receivers also noted the ball had a little more zip on it that it had in recent seasons.

This season, Matt Ryan has proven that he can indeed throw the deep pass. In fact, Ryan leads the league in deep ball passing according to

advanced stats pro football focus utilizes. I am a big fan of PFF stats because it takes into account things such as passing under pressure,

drops by receivers, and accuracy. Ryan has attempted 67 passes over 20 yards and has completed 30 of those for a total of 820 yards. That is a 56.7 percent accuracy rate which also leads all quarterbacks in deep balls.

5 of those deep passes have gone for touchdowns. Ryan’s stats would be even better had his receivers not dropped 8 passes which is the

most in the league for passes over 20 yards.

Matt Ryan’s had definitely grown comfortable lately throwing the ball deep to Julio Jones. They have developed really good chemistry since Jones entered the league 4 years ago and have hooked up for some big plays for the Falcons to keep them in the playoff hunt. Julio is one of the best deep threats in the league.

Matt Ryan has been nothing but a true professional since he entered the league. The fact that he worked so hard on something that was once a

weakness of his, to turn it around and now leads the league shows that he is the consummate Pro’s Pro. Great job Matt Ryan. I’m sure the Falcons faithful would love to see a few more deep completions this Sunday against the Panthers in a must win game. Do you feel Matt Ryan throws the deep ball really well? Join the discussion below.