Fantasy Upside
Matt Ryan can still sling it at 36 years old. In fact, no quarterback threw more passes in 2020 than Ryan (626). Ryan's 407 completions also led the league last year. Ryan also has a new head coach in Arthur Smith, who completely turned the career of Ryan Tannehill around. The offense still looks strong on paper, even with the Falcons trading Julio Jones to the Titans. Calvin Ridley had an incredible 2020 and now will be even more of a focal point of the offense and the Falcons drafted a stud tight end in Kyle Pitts with the fourth overall pick of the draft.
Fantasy Downside
Losing Julio Jones certainly stings Ryan's value, but Jones had been banged up in recent years. Regardless, Ryan loses the one of, if not the, best wide receiver he ever got to throw to in his career. What also caps Ryan's ceiling is his lack of rushing ability. He ran for under 100 yards in 2020. Mobile quarterbacks have taken the league by storm (Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, etc). Matt Ryan is not one of those quarterbacks anymore, which lowers his fantasy potential for 2021.
2021 Bottom Line
The Falcons had a really difficult decision to make with the fourth pick and they chose a tight end over a potential future quarterback. That could tell us the team feels this offense just needed a few pieces to make one more run with Ryan. Having Ridley, Gage and Pitts still make Ryan a very viable QB2 with low-end QB1 upside. His lack of rushing ability will keep him behind the likes of Allen and Murray, to name a few.