How Tom Brady inspired the Falcons to draft Matt Ryan

There are plenty of mechanics and technical aspects to scouting quarterbacks. But with most general managers, instinct is involved, too. And so it was that in early 2008, new Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff arrived fresh off six years in New England. And that experience with the Patriots played a role in a feeling Dimitroff got about Matt Ryan.

Armed with the third overall pick, the Falcons brass finished a private workout with Ryan on Boston College’s campus, and climbed aboard Arthur Blank’s jet. I’ll let Dimitroff take it from there.

“I remember we were flying West to San Francisco to work some players out, watching some video,” Dimitroff said Wednesday. “It was funny, it hadn’t quite dawned on me this way before, but I swear to God, I looked out the window and there was this amazing sunset shining through the clouds, and I looked down at the video I was watching. And I saw the ‘12’ on Matt’s back (Ryan wore 12 at BC), and I immediately started thinking about Tom Brady. And it was like, this is a no-brainer, this is what we have to do.

"You’re always looking for confirmation. That was a fun moment for me, like, what are we doing? We’re overthinking this. And [then-coach Mike Smith] and I talked about it and said no question, 100 percent, this is our guy.”

And it wasn’t just a feeling either. Dimitroff says now that being around Brady reinforced his beliefs on the importance of leadership and work ethic in quarterbacks, and Ryan certainly had those. There were also physical similarities.

“Having had the opportunity to be around Tom, watching him, and marveling at him and how he handled himself, ad-libbing in the pocket was one of the things that really got my attention,” Dimitroff said. “When I started to watch Matt Ryan, it was a major similarity they have. They can create and ad-lib in the pocket before they throw, and you combine that with an attitude I thought Matt had just watching from afar, and it was on my mind. The similarities sunk in for me on several levels.”

Ryan still has a long way to go if he’s ever to create a legacy like Brady’s. But looking at where they are, I’m gonna guess the Falcons are pretty satisfied that one No. 12 led them to another.

Read the rest of Albert Breer's Super Bowl notebook at the MMQB.