Atlanta Falcons Made Right Decision In Starting Matt Ryan at Quarterback

Any time the debate is brought out, people throw out names.

Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Cade McNown, Tim Couch—all of who were high draft picks who started right away with struggling franchises and never quite lived up to the hype they started with.

So now that the Atlanta Falcons have named rookie third-overall draft pick Matt Ryan their starting quarterback, the debate is brought up once again. Did the Falcons make the right decision in starting Ryan? Or should they have let him sit the bench for a while and learn while the franchise inevitably struggles under Harrington or Chris Redman?

The answer is simple: You start Ryan.

The safe decision by the franchise would be to start Redman or Harrington. After all, you know what you're getting with them.

What do you get? A returning 4-12 team that traded their best player (DeAngelo Hall). With Redman or Harrington you're virtually guaranteeing that the team goes 4-12 next season at best.

And you may get the exact same thing out of Ryan. But the thing is, you don't know.

Ryan was the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, meaning someone, somewhere in the Falcons organization believes he has what it takes to run an NFL Franchise. Just like Harrington or any of the aforementioned quarterbacks, he will have a tremendous amount of pressure on his shoulders as he takes the reigns of the Falcons for the first time.

And maybe Ryan won't be able to handle that pressure. But the thing is, would the Falcons really want him to run their franchise if he can't? There's no way of finding that out without throwing him into the fire.

If the Falcons were an 8-8 or 7-9 team on the brink of the playoffs, it would be different. If they had a "win now" mentality, then another quarterback might be the option.

But they don't. They need to know if the quarterback they invested $34 million GUARANTEED in, is good enough to lead them back to respectability. The only way you do that is by starting him.

It's true that more have failed in Ryan's situation and have then succeeded. For every Peyton Manning, there are four or five Ryan Leafs. For every Ben Roethlisberger, there are a couple of David Carrs hanging around.

But the Falcons will not succeed under Redman or Harrington. And they won't know if they will succeed under Ryan unless they start him.

So the decision is clear, and Falcons management made the right decision. Start Matt Ryan, and the future is now for Atlanta.