NFL Careers: Ryan Slick (Rookie Year)

The Preseason

Ryan got up early that morning. The flight from Atlanta to Seattle still had his head spinning, but at least the hotel room was nice. "Ryan Slick and the Atlanta Falcons take on Russel Wilson and the Seahawks tonight in a preseason contest. There is a lot of buzz surrounding this first game. Analysts will be on the scene to break down the first quarter and maybe get a sneak peak into the future of Ryan Slick." ESPN was still talking about preseason game one. Ryan was able to deal with the attention though. It wasn't a big deal to him.

Ryan arrived at Century Link with the team at about twelve o'clock. It was raining of course. It seemed like it always was. Ryan walked into the locker room entrance where there were thousands of cameras and reporters waiting for him. He walked past them and gave a smile to all of them. But he would not answer questions. He got into the locker room and organized his pads. After a while of hydrating and wrapping ankles, Ryan finally got a chance to sit down and shake out the butterflies. So many nerves were in his system at the moment and he couldn't believe the season was finally here. Could he really do it? Could he really be the answer to Atlanta's problems? All the coaches thought so and so did the people of Atlanta.

But talk was talk and it was time to prove it. Ryan led his team out onto the field and rushed to the sideline. Slick linked arms with the rest of his Falcon captains and marched to the center of the field. On the other side of the field stood Richard Sherman and the Seahawks's captains. "Heads or Tails? You call it twelve." Said the ref. "Tails." The ref flips the coin and it lands on tails. Ryan pumps his fist. "We want the ball." Jonathan Stewart says. The team runs off the field and waits patiently on the sideline.

Steven Hauschka lines up and kicks the ball to Julio Jones who returns it to the thirty-four yard line. Ryan sets up there and huddles the team around him. "Falcon 34 screen on set 3." The huddle breaks and they get to the line fast. The ball snaps into Ryan's hands as he drops back. He lets the d-line creep up before dumping it off to Jonathan Stewart who runs for a sixteen yard gain before being taken down by BobbyWagner. A couple of plays later the drive stalls and Matt Bryant comes out and kicks a twenty-six yard field goal.

The Seahawks get the ball back at the twenty-six yard line. After four plays, the drive stops due to a Paul Worrilow INT. The Falcons start at the fifty. Ryan audibles a shallow cross. He tosses the ball to Roddy White who advances the ball past the first down mark. They advance the ball down field to the twenty where Richard Sherman caused a fumble picked up by Michael Bennett. This time the Seahawks did not falter and scored a touchdown.

Time was running out and there was only a minute left. The ball snaps back to Ryan. He drops back and rolls out to the left. All of his receivers are tightly covered. He feels pressure coming from the right. He bursts downfield avoiding the the first few tacklers. Then, bursting through the secondary, hurdles a diving Byron Maxwell. Earl Thomas follows close behind as Ryan sprints across the field. Ten yards out, Thomas leaps onto Slick's back. Ryan stumbles under the weight of Thomas and falls. Little did Ryan know that when he looked down, he saw greyish-blue turf. He was in the endzone. Touchdown!

By the end of the quarter, Ryan threw for 86 yards and rushed for 50 and a touchdown. The Falcons won the game 24-17.

By the end of the preseason, the falcons finished 3-1. Ryan finished with 376 yards passing and 129 yards rushing with 4 passing touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdowns. That's unheard of for a rookie. ESPN raved about his accuracy and ablility to improvise. He led the preseason stats out of all starting quarterbacks and was second out of all starting rushers.