- July 14, 2025
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Ryan Neuzil has spent much of his life in the shadows, but it’s starting to become difficult for him to stay away from the spotlight.
The former Braden River High football player, who struggled for snaps at one point in Pop Warner, inked a two-year, $9.5 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons May 28.
Neuzil’s hard-earned contract provides newfound financial security as the 27-year-old is looking to buy a house with his fiancee, Allie Tillman.
But it also represents some long overdue validation.
After watching her son play limited snaps in Pop Warner, Tina Neuzil watched her son play left tackle at Braden River High.
She thought he could do better at another position.
“I wasn’t happy with the position that he was playing, and I went to the coach and said, ‘The kid has crazy good hands,’” Tina Neuzil said. “If you throw the ball anywhere near him, he’s going to catch it.’ Of course, that didn’t go over super well because they looked at me like a crazy mom. But I was like, ‘Do you want to win?’”
Eventually, the Braden River coaching staff relented and tried Neuzil at tight end in his junior year. He finished with 26 receptions for 470 yards and two touchdowns while also serving as the team’s punter. Braden River went 23-2 over his junior and senior years.
Despite his athletic success, Neuzil still flew under the radar when it came to college recruitment.
When a recruiter from Appalachian State visited Palmetto High, then-head coach Dave Marino recommended the recruiter check out Neuzil at Braden River.
“He said, ‘I normally never do this, but there is a kid over at Braden River you need to go take a look at,’” Tina Neuzil said. “And (Marino) is single-handedly the reason why Ryan was recruited to App State.”
Recruited as a center, Neuzil redshirted the 2016 season with the Mountaineers and played in a reserve role for most of the following season until he earned an opportunity to start at left guard for the final five games in 2017.
Once he had his chance to play to start, he hardly left the field over the next three-plus seasons.
Neuzil went on to become a First Team All-Sun Belt player, a two-time Second Team All-American and was ranked as the No. 85 overall college football player as a senior in 2020 by Pro Football Focus.
Despite that, Neuzil sat through the 2020 NFL Draft without hearing his name called.
“He was a Second Team All-American and he killed it at his pro day,” said his father, Jeff Neuzil. “So to not even get a whiff in the draft, I was a little upset.”
By that point, however, Neuzil had grown used to proving his worth on the field.
Neuzil grew up in a household with a very competitive dad and older brother, Alec Neuzil.
That led Ryan Neuzil to try a variety of sports — often playing against older players so he could be on the same team as Alec.
He played baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, volleyball, football. He also is a very good bowler, pickleball player and skier, according to his parents.
When he was 9 years old, Ryan, a left-handed pitcher, came in a game and struck out nine straight batters.
That would be the last time he played baseball.
“He found it boring,” Tina Neuzil said.
Described by his family as ‘quiet as a mouse,’ and ‘someone who runs from the spotlight,’ Neuzil unknowingly spent much of his life forging himself into someone capable of meeting the challenge of making an NFL roster.
His mental fortitude has been put to the test all along the way.
Neuzil certainly had to work his way up with the Falcons.
That meant overcoming the near-weekly stress of surviving on the practice squad in 2021.
“The NFL is obviously a business first, so every day you have to go out and prove why they should have you,” Neuzil said.
After making the 53-man roster the next season, Neuzil spent much of 2022 and 2023 trying to stand out as a contributor on special teams.
Finally, he started his first game at center in Week 13 of the 2023 season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This past season, an ankle injury to starting center Drew Dalman in Week 3 gave Neuzil the opportunity to start the following eight games.
He played well enough that when Dalman signed with the Chicago Bears as a free agent this offseason, the Falcons started negotiating with Neuzil to bring him back.
After years of grinding to earn his keep, Neuzil has finally earned some security.
That doesn’t mean he’s changing the approach that helped him get here, however.
“Football, especially at this level, I think you truly never arrive,” Ryan Neuzil said. “You always have to set out to keep getting better and prove yourself. The game is very humbling, so you have to be at your best at all times. You can’t take off and say, ‘Oh well, this worked well in the past, so I’m good now.’ Everyone is coming in bigger, faster and stronger, so you have to stay on top of your game.”
