Matt Ryan Wins 2016-17 Offensive Player of the Year Award: Latest Comments, More

Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falconscaptured the 2016 Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award on Saturday night during the NFL Honors ceremony at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, per the league:It's the first time Ryan has been named the AP's choice for the league's best offensive player. Previous honors include being the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2008 and getting selected to four Pro Bowls, though he couldn't appear in this season's showcase while preparing for the Super Bowl.The MVP candidate beat out the likes of Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson, Dallas Cowboys rookie sensation Ezekiel Elliott and fellow quarterbacks Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers for the award.For years, Ryan had flashed the ability to play at a top-tier level, but he was never able to maintain it over the course of a 16-game season. That changed in 2016.The 31-year-old Boston College product completed a career-high 69.9 percent of his throws for 4,944 yards, 38 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. That's a massive uptick in efficiency compared to the 21 TDs and 16 INTs he tossed in 2015.Unsurprisingly, his success led the Falcons to great heights. The team posted the second-best record in the NFC at 11-5 in the regular season before beating the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers to earn a berth in Sunday's Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.While Offensive Player of the Year is a regular-season award, Ryan's play in the playoffs has solidified this as his best campaign to date. He's thrown seven touchdowns and no picks in the two wins.D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted the quarterback attributed his success to focusing more on what he can control and ignoring everything else that comes with playing perhaps the most pressure-filled position in sports."I think that's one of the things that I've learned," Ryan said. "All of the extracurricular pressure, the outside noise that people talk about, doesn't make a difference. What makes a difference is how well we play. In order to play well, we need to practice well."It's a mindset that transformed him from a solid quarterback into one of the league's best players. A Super Bowl triumph would be the perfect cap to a memorable season for the Pennsylvania native.
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