Kevin Winston, the Falcons' senior director of player development, welcomes Julio Jones to the team's facilities in Flowery Branch in April. (D. Orlando Ledbetter/Dledbetter@ajc.com)

BIRDLAND — The lockout is a real bummer for the players.

But quarterback Matt Ryan is taking the bull by the horn (unlike the Hawks) and is providing the team some leadership during these turbulent times.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan before leading about 30 players through an unofficial minicamp practice on Tuesday. (D. Orlando Ledbetter/Dledbetter@AJC.com)

One of his missions is to get rookie Julio Jones up to speed. Jones, whom the Falcons traded up 21 spots to select in the NFL draft, has already been meeting with Ryan and the wide receivers.

It certainly helps that John Parker Wilson, one of Ryan’s backups, has been helping. Parker won 12 games as a senior at Alabama when Jones was a freshman.

He noted that Jones came in and learned the offense pretty fast. He said that Jones won’t have a …