A third overall pick WILL get insane money, no doubt about it. Especially a QB. If they paid a little more than the Raiders paid Russell last year, that’s probably OK. Just keeping up with inflation there.

Good move locking him up early! Five years from now, if Ryan’s successful, nobody will care (we’ll have our franchise QB, right?). If he’s mediocre, it will be the familiar cry, “same old Falcons”. God, I hope not…

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Ryan earns his paycheck! He seems like a pretty level headed kid. I doubt he will let everyone down the way #7 did.

but this contract is absolutely ridiculous which is why the owners opted out of the CBA, something needs to changed with these rookie contracts.

Is this signing related to the CBA optout? I believe that will do away with the cap, at least for a period, thus no overall team payroll crunch from this signing. The JaMarcus situation was a disaster for the raiders last year – he came into camp way late & they got absolutely nothing out of him. The signing convinces me that dimitroff made this pick – by throwing an oil well at the guy to get him into cap, he’s maximizing the guy’s chance, which makes me think that dimitroff feels his own rep is on the line.

But he has to perform like the next coming of Favre/Manning to even scratch the surface of that full 72mil. Those performance marks will surely include playoff appearances, ROY, Pro Bowl appearances, among many other hard to attain things so I am not all that worried about the money. I do agree that rookie contracts are stupid ridiculous and they should be done in the same vein that MLB does it’s rookie contracts. Throw a couple hundred thousand at them and make them earn their keep. Contracts can and are re-worked, re-structured, or completely thrown out and re-wrote, so if a rookie goes off in year one then there’s no harm in giving him a new deal and everyone is happy. On the flip side, if the guy turns into a Ryan Leaf or Akili Smith, then the team doesn’t lose as much. I really do think the emphasis should be put on performance and proven veterans instead of the unknown and the hopes that a player will be all the hype that surrounds him.

That being said, six years at 34mil is fine by me. Like Tom Slick said, it’s just keeping up with inflation I suppose and if he hits most of those performance marks, then that can only mean one thing, wins. No matter where you stand, the Falcons wining games is a good thing.

A QB taken at #3 was going to get paid in a big way. Whatever your opinion on Ryan, its the way things work in the NFL (hopefully not for too much longer, but I digress). He was going to get a massive payday, the only question was when does he sign. Personally, I would rather have seen it get done now and get him into camp than have a holdout and maybe save a few million. Getting him into camp is vital. It will speed his development and have him ready to contribute sooner. Its a mountain of money, but was unavoidable. Good job by Comrade and company landing him so early in the game.

Sure, it’s good to get him in camp, but this isn’t college where getting him into spring practice may get him in the mix. Does anyone really expect Ryan to perform very well this year? I think he does have some good skill players around him, but until I see the OL perform well, this kind of move worries me. I just don’t see the good teams around the league making this kind of move. Yeah, he’s a QB, but he should still be getting at least slightly less than Jake Long, not more than Jake Long.

Hopefully, he’ll prove me wrong, but this move worries me.

I really like the Falcons-used to be stationed at Ft. Stewart back in the day-but man, first off, you needed to take Glenn Dorsey, and secondly, NO NFL QB is worth what this guy’s getting paid in his first two years. Even Marino and Rothlesburger had their early success mostly owing to quality surrounding talent.

I hated what happened with Mike Vick, but compounding ugly with even more ugly is rarely a good idea.

From what I have been reading and hearing recently, the deal was made because Blank and Condon knew that the owners were going to opt out of the CBA that afternoon. If a deal had not been made by that time, then Blank would not have been able to lock Ryan up for the full six years per the league rules that are in place during a time period when there is no CBA, such as right now. Ryan would have only been able to get a three year deal and I don’t think that anyone who believes he is our franchise QB wants that, especially Blank. If not for that, I would have liked to see Blank to really negotiate on this one, but instead his hands were tied somewhat.

That’s why I am fine with it.

for the falcons and the NFL. the falcons will feel the effect of this years down the line unless he is a hall of fame type guy which is slim to none of a chance. also the NFL will feel it in terms of every other player that shares any similar qualities such as a QB or in the same draft will want a hell of a lot more money.

Inflation. No inflation. How in the world does a guy, who hasn’t even taken his first NFL hit, get $72 mil with $34.75 mil guaranteed. You are not officially in the NFL until you take your first hit and get up! And to make things worst, overall, Ryan was neither the best player nor the best QB in the draft. Brohm was a more complete QB and it’s in his bloodline. Dorsey was, arguably, the best player in the past two drafts. If you talk about upside, then what about Josh Johnson out of San Diego State. He threw for 43 TDs and 1(one) INT. And that INT hit his TE in the CHEST! If you are going to reach, reach for that. What about the veterans who have put up with all the stuff that comes with being a NFL player? Brady’s last contract was for $78 mil and he has won Super Bowls. Ryan threw 19 ints in the ACC. Well he threw the ball 650 times is the usual argument. He only had 31 TDs then. Woodson had 40 in the SEC. Brohm had over 30 in the SEC. So all you have to do is look like a prototypical QB. Oh he has the intangibles! I forgot!