Did Ryan win the job?

[HMFFL]

Matt Ryan, fresh off his 1-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter of the Falcons’ 17-3 preseason victory over Tennessee Friday, jubilantly jogged back to the sideline. He was met with pats on the back and high fives by a slew of players and coaches.

Then, as he reached for a cup of water, the three other quarterbacks circled him, smiling and glad-handing. Were this a political campaign, it could have been viewed as a conference of concession — with the runners-up realizing the hierarchy had been established.

Chris Redman stepped in for Ryan on the ensuing series. Joey Harrington and D.J. Shockley didn’t even play.

“I thought I did some good things. I thought I made some mistakes,” Ryan said in his increasingly stoic manner. “I thought there were some plays we made that were big and kept the ball moving. Good and bad, we’ll look at the tape and get better into next week and heading into the regular season.

Falcons coach Mike Smith said “clarity” needed to be established before naming his starting quarterback. The rain is gone. Most everyone can see clearly now.

Smith said he and his staff need to watch the tape just to make sure the eye test wasn’t a mirage.

“Matt progressed again,” Smith said. “We wanted to get Matt in as many different situations as we possibly could through this process. He threw the ball efficiently. Didn’t really get any long throws down the field. I thought he operated well against a very physical football team. There’s a learning curve. We’ll got back and watch the tape and see how our entire football team did but I thought Matt did a nice job for his first start.”

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