Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, and Mike Florio.
Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images, Stephen Lew-Imagn Images, NBC Sports
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Tom Brady and Matt Ryan have seen their profession paths cross at several points.
Most notably, at Super Bowl LI, when Brady’s New England Patriots erased a 28–3 lead that Ryan’s Atlanta Falcons held to complete one of the most impressive comebacks in NFL history.
But the paths of Brady and Ryan have also seen quite a few similarities in their post-playing days. Both men took on jobs as broadcasters, and then later, became involved in team management in some capacity, with Brady as a limited partner and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and Ryan being named the president of football for the Falcons ahead of the season. And as Mike Florio explained on Tuesday, while Brady was clearly the more imposing quarterback on the field, Ryan may stand out as the greater threat when it comes to team management.
Florio explained that one coach he spoke with said that while Brady’s focus was split between commentating game for Fox, in addition to lots of other commitments from ad deals to his own personal interests, on top of his role with the Raiders, Ryan was the scarier potential executive, because he was “all in.”
“I did hear from one coach that was like, ‘Hey, quit complaining about Brady. We like this. Brady is spread too thin.’ Now, the Raiders are 3–1, so in the short-term, the theory is being challenged, but Brady’s not all in. Go ahead. Let him do all of the stuff he’s going to do. Let him walk the runway. Let him do Gucci ads. Let him advertise watches. Let him do this, let him do that. Let him work for Fox while he’s supposedly running the Raiders. But Matt Ryan’s the one I’m concerned about. Because he’s there. He’s there all the time. He’s getting himself fully immersed.”
Florio added that many of the “cerebral” skills that make someone an elite quarterback can transfer over to the team management side of the sport, especially when a former quarterback is bringing the same intensity and desire to improve every day to the executive side of the job as they did to their playing career. While Brady’s attention is clearly split between several different post-playing jobs, Ryan is solely focused on his role with his former team.
“He’s all in with the Falcons, and there are teams that are concerned about it.”
Some people around the league aren’t worried about Tom Brady’s dual role, because he isn’t fully focused on the Raiders. There’s a greater worry that Matt Ryan is going to make a real difference for the Falcons, because he’s all-in. https://t.co/FOnQcay98Q
— PFT Live (@PFT_Live) October 6, 2026
You don’t need to look far to see evidence of the difference between Brady and Ryan. Because of Brady’s job as a broadcaster at Fox, he’s only able to make it to select Raiders games when the team isn’t playing on Sunday. Meanwhile, Ryan has apparently established himself as a fixture at the Falcons facility.
Further, as Florio points out, Ryan pivoted completely away from media when he took on his job with Atlanta. While he initially expressed a desire to keep his role with CBS, he eventually decided his main job would be the one he had with the Falcons, and kept his focus there.
It’s only four games into the season, so any call on the relative success of either Brady or Ryan as executives this year is very obviously premature, but if the Falcons’ turnaround proves to be real and sustains through the year and beyond, Ryan’s presence will be noted as a key factor.