Matt Ryan not practicing Thursday as Matt Schaub gears up for Seahawks

With each passing day, the chances of Matt Ryan playing Sunday against the Seahawks seem more remote.

For the second straight day, Ryan was not practicing. He would have to practice on at least a limited basis on Friday for me to feel any sort of confidence that he’ll go, and with two days where he’s not doing so at all in the books, I would peg his chances of actually going as slim. It’s the end of a long, long streak of starts, if so.

Our own Jeanna Thomas notes that Ryan’s absence during remarks to the media on Wednesday—and the fact that Matt Schaub was out there instead—strongly indicates he’s not going to suit up on Sunday. The evidence is mounting, then, that the Falcons will be without their starting quarterback for the first time since 2009, and with perhaps Dan Quinn’s final game coming up against one of the toughest teams in the NFC.

Schaub will start if Ryan can’t go, and it’ll be his first NFL start since 2015, when he started two games for the Ravens. Schaub was last a full-time starter in 2012, so despite some shakiness in years past and some legitimately impressive play in preseason and on his brief fill-in for Ryan last week, I have no idea what to expect from him for this one. If Ryan cannot go, also, I’d expect Danny Etling to be summoned from the practice squad and made active on Sunday, because there’s no Mohamed Sanu to fill in as the emergency option now.

Nothing is good right now, but at least Ryan likely won’t be risking further injury in a game that the Falcons are unfortunately probably going to lose regardless.