Don’t freak out that Matt Ryan got picked off by his coach

Quarterbacks throw interceptions during training camp. It’s a fact of life. Matt Ryan threw an interception today, which isn’t a big deal in and of itself. This particular interception becomes a bit more interesting because the pass, which was intended for tight end Austin Hooper, was intercepted by Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.

In training camp, just like in real game situations, sometimes an interception is the quarterback’s fault. The signal caller may make a bad read or just have a bad throw. Sometimes a pick is the fault of the receiver. Maybe he bobbles the ball, or maybe he runs the wrong route and a defender seizes the opportunity. In the case of Ryan’s pass that was intercepted by Shanahan, it was simply the case of a rookie tight end running the wrong route.

The video of the play shows Hooper taking a sharply angled route into the end zone, when he should have flattened out the route to come back to the ball. Shanahan, who knows the play call and anticipates exactly where the ball is supposed to go, easily grabs the pick and then explains to Atlanta’s third-round draft choice what Hooper needs to correct for next time.

Yes, it’s funny that Ryan threw an interception to his own offensive coordinator, especially in light of rumors of personality clashes between the two last season. However, this one wasn’t on Ryan. Players -- especially rookies -- are going to occasionally run the wrong routes on the practice field. This was merely an opportunity for Kyle Shanahan to help a rookie get a little better, and he took it.