Matt Ryan endured crushing losses. Jalen Hurts can learn from his example.

LAS VEGAS — Seven years after 28-3, six years after that desperate fourth-down throw that sailed over Julio Jones’ fingertips, Matt Ryan presented himself with the air and the appearance of a man who had moved on. There he was Tuesday, blue suit, crisp white shirt, parted hair, in a ballroom inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, fulfilling his obligation as an analyst for CBS, giving his takes on Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy and Super Bowl LVIII, cameras and smartphones closing in around the table where he sat. And he was smiling as he spoke. And it was impossible not to think, How can he be smiling?

Seven years … six years … the elapse’s length wouldn’t matter. Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons were up 25 points with less than 24 minutes to go in Super Bowl LI, and they lost. They were down five and had four shots from inside the Eagles’ 10-yard line in the final 69 seconds of an NFC divisional-round game, and they couldn’t score.

You can lament the Eagles’ missed opportunity in Super Bowl LVII — Jalen Hurts’ crushing fumble, James Bradberry’s holding penalty, a defense that offered no resistance to the Kansas City Chiefs — and you can still recognize: That game doesn’t compare to the Falcons’ collapse in January 2017, to their loss to the Eagles in January 2018, to the might-have-beens that have to haunt Ryan to this day. He grew up in Exton and went to Penn Charter, so maybe he couldn’t escape it. Maybe those excruciating defeats are the burden that any pro athlete with a Philadelphia connection is born to bear.

It looked like he had let them go. How could he let them go? Especially now. The entire run-up to Sunday’s game between the Chiefs and 49ers would seem one long reminder of a failure that never fades, a hole that’s never filled.

“I mean, they’re always there,” he said. “The disappointment or anger or being [ticked], whatever — I don’t think that’s ever really gone. But it becomes a little more dull. I still played for a while after that, which makes it different. If that had been my last year or two, I think it would sit a little differently. For me, it was always the work, putting in the work, that helped me move past good or bad performances — getting back and trying to find a way to improve or be the best team you could be. The work always helped that.”

The work, Ryan suggested, will help Hurts and the Eagles, too. The irony of the Falcons’ 34-28 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl LI is that they actually bounced back from it better than the Eagles did from their near-win in Glendale last year. Each team had to replace a highly regarded offensive coordinator and play-caller, and each quarterback’s performance regressed for the change: Atlanta went from Kyle Shanahan to Steve Sarkisian; the Eagles went from Shane Steichen to Brian Johnson.

Ryan’s numbers dropped from his 2016 MVP season, just as Hurts’ did from his breakout 2022 campaign. But Atlanta still managed to go 10-6, beat the Rams in Los Angeles in the wild-card round, and come within one play of the NFC title game — where a vulnerable Minnesota Vikings team would have been waiting for them. That was a far better result than a stretch of six losses in seven games and an embarrassing postseason exit by the Eagles. It was a reaffirmation that the Falcons were fine in Ryan’s hands, in contrast to the questions that have surrounded Hurts and the rest of the team ever since they got to 10-1.

“It’s hard,” Ryan said. “It’s the constant question: Can you guys do it again? What happened last year? Can you do it again? Can you do it again? In our case, it was this lead we had and couldn’t finish with. It’s a constant feeling with all the stuff outside of the building, and honestly, it’s one of the prouder moments of my career, was that team finding a way to navigate all of that stuff and get into the playoffs and end up losing to the Eagles at the end of the game up there. They go on and win the Super Bowl. We were close, very close again.

“It’s navigating all the outside-the-building noise. Having grown up in Philadelphia, I know it can get pretty loud.”

Imagine how loud it would have been had the Eagles gone through anything like what Ryan and the Falcons did. That last-minute loss at Lincoln Financial Field was the final playoff game of Ryan’s career. He was 32 at the time, and not only did he never reach the postseason again, he never had another winning season.

Hurts is just 25, presumably with years ahead of him, with time to process what he has done right through his three full seasons as the Eagles’ starter and what went so wrong over those closing seven weeks this season. It’s easy to forget how much he has accomplished and how quickly he has accomplished it. He is already ahead of Ryan in that regard. At the same stage of his career, Ryan was 0-2 in the playoffs, and as polished and mature as he was even then, it was no sure thing that he would grow into what he became: the most important player the Falcons ever had. It was on him to make the climb.

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“One of the most important things as a professional athlete is the ability to honestly evaluate what you’ve done well and the stuff that needs improvement,” Ryan said. “Guys who have long, successful, consistent careers — it’s one of the things they do fairly well. If I were talking to [Hurts], I’d say, ‘All right, go through it. What are the things you feel like were good? What are the areas that need to improve? What are the things you can control in those types of environments?’ Then, try to eliminate as much noise. Don’t worry about what everyone else’s perspective is. What’s your perspective? Who are the people you’re close with and you trust? Then put together a plan, and be confident in that plan moving forward. That’s pretty simple, but that’s the route I would go.”

It’s the only way a quarterback can hope to fulfill his promise and find some peace of mind. It’s the only way a quarterback, even the one who suffered the worst Super Bowl loss of all, can move on.