Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff sees parallels between Matt Ryan and Tom Brady ahead of their duel at Super Bowl LI on Sunday.

Falcons quarterback Ryan is expected to be named NFL MVP on Saturday ahead of their showdown with Brady's New England Patriots in Houston.

Brady is looking to become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowl titles to add further credence to the argument that he is the greatest of all time at the game's most important position.

Ryan, by contrast, is playing in the Super Bowl for the first time, but, though Dimitroff is keen not to compare the two, he does recognise there are similarities in their games.

Asked by Omnisport what he sees when watching the 39-year-old Brady, Dimitroff replied: "I have so much respect for him, as do our team. His innate drive to be the best that he can be, to make history, to be so focused and so dedicated both on and off the field, to be the prototypical leader you're looking for on a team.

"It's the parallels that I see in Matt Ryan, which I'm so proud of.

"It's not fair to compare Matt Ryan to Tom Brady and the time they've spent in this league and the accomplishments, Matt is in a great spot right now, we really love how he's growing and when I see certain parallels between the two, I'm really, really encouraged about the future for Matt Ryan."

On the fine-tuning Ryan did before the season, Dimitroff added: "He knows what he needed to work on, he knows what his strong suits were, he knew what his challenges were and to me that's where some of the best leaders and some of the best players in this league are, so he went out, he continued to refine some of those areas. 

"Matt went out and hung out with the players and threw balls to them and they continued to refine their understanding of [offensive coordinator] Kyle Shanahan's system and they came together and they were in sync on that, which was vital.

"I think Matt continued to move in the pocket better than he ever has. When he was coming out of Boston College it was one of the parallels that I marvelled at that I thought had similarities to Tom Brady.

"It wasn't about being fleet of foot, it was their ability to create. I believe this year he really focused on his confidence to air the ball out and spin that badboy deep, I love seeing that. We have the tools to do that.

"Bill Belichick and Tom Brady do a great job of utilising the tools they have on their team, this team right is utlising the tools the talent we have on our team to the best of our ability."

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