Sixteen years after his selection by the Atlanta Falcons helped headline the start of the 2008 NFL Draft, Matt Ryan is officially calling it a career, announcing Monday that he is retiring from football at the age of 38.
Ryan, who currently serves as an NFL analyst for CBS Sports, did not take the field during the 2023 season, following a one-year stint with the Indianapolis Colts. He left the door open for a return to the game upon joining the broadcast booth, but now, with 15 years of quarterbacking in the books, he's hung up the cleats as an honorary member of the team that defined his All-Pro career: the Falcons.
"You have no control in this profession of where you start," Ryan said in his announcement video. "I am so lucky that my start, and now my finish, is here in Atlanta."
Drafted No. 3 overall out of Boston College back in 2008, Ryan spent the first 14 seasons of his career with the Falcons, compiling the most career wins by a quarterback in team history. The four-time Pro Bowler holds a slew of major passing records for Atlanta, also winning NFL MVP in 2016 and helping the team advance to the Super Bowl that same year. He opened his Falcons tenure as the Offensive Rookie of the Year and finished it having led the team to six different playoff appearances, while becoming a staple of the Atlanta community off the field.
"I'm honored to retire as a Falcon," Ryan said Monday. "Through the highs and the lows, I always felt your energy and passion. ... While we didn't accomplish everything we had hoped, I am proud of what we did, and I know that I gave everything I could to be the best that I possibly could."
