The grass stains aren’t even washed out of Tony Gonzalez‘s pants yet and the future Hall of Fame tight end is already making waves, this time in regards to his former teammate.
Gonzalez, who is adamant that he is retiring, recently partook in an interview with ESPN Magazine and suggested Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan isn’t ‘elite’.
NFL.com’s Chris Wesseling has the story:
"Excuses aside, Ryan couldn’t pull his team out of a season-long tailspin as other members of the NFL’s quarterback royalty have done. Recently retired tight end Tony Gonzalez acknowledged as much in an interview with ESPN The Magazine.“Matt’s an excellent quarterback,” Gonzalez said, “But he’s not elite. He’s this close.”"
In fairness, Gonzalez is likely right. That’s no slight to Ryan who’s a very good quarterback, but the ‘elite’ tag tends to get thrown around a bit too often and most would agree Ryan isn’t in that special group. It’s possible he could eventually make his way there, but right now he’s not on that level.
Hard to give Gonzo any grief over that.