Falcons draft QB of the future in Desmond Ridder

[atlantabbq99]

Mariota was a nice little experiment for the Falcons in 2022, but he is obviously not an NFL caliber QB. I'm not a Ridder fan, but lets see if Coach Smith can whisper him to be a decent to good NFL level QB

[HMFFL]

It is time.

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Four weeks late but I'm ready to see him on the field. I wanted him to start while we still owned first place. Wishful thinking on my part.

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[HMFFL]

Mariota was a nice little experiment for the Falcons in 2022, but he is obviously not an NFL caliber QB. I'm not a Ridder fan, but lets see if Coach Smith can whisper him to be a decent to good NFL level QB

Mariota had his moment.
I believe Ridder will be our QB for many years and be successful. Not having Pitts at the moment is a huge hit for Ridders debut.

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[Jamaaliver]

How the Falcons prepared rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder for his first start



AT SOME POINT this season, it felt like the Falcons were going to get a look at Ridder, either because Atlanta was out of playoff contention or because Mariota struggled.

Ridder, for every regular season practice this year, has worked with the scout team...It has been his role for 13 weeks, a combination of learning how to be an NFL quarterback while simultaneously mimicking others.

Since Atlanta drafted Ridder in April, there has been a clear development plan. The Falcons wanted to push him but not overload him, see what he could handle without placing him in a position that could stunt his success. In minicamp and throughout the season, Falcons coaches have praised how Ridder handled things mentally -- from learning the playbook to picking up on his offensive scheme -- and his maturity.

Then comes this: For anywhere between 15 minutes to a half-hour after practice, Ridder and a collection of Atlanta offensive players, who primarily spend their time on scout team, stay on the field running through plays. These are their reps to learn Atlanta's offense.

Falcons HC Arthur Smith had seen careers ruined by too much, too soon. Ridder was coming in to learn and then, potentially, start. He would not be thrust immediately into the top role.

It's a tricky balance. There have been points where Ridder wowed teammates with throws in practice, but to truly know the progress he has made is difficult because he's being given the play on a card before it is run. It's a play he's not necessarily familiar with but also a scenario where sometimes he's told to go to a certain spot no matter what.

Other times, he's reading progressions based on Atlanta's defense. So it's a rep, sort of. But it is experience, something that could help Ridder for multiple reasons, including him not being tied to one style of play.

Draft picks are never guaranteed successes anyway, and third-round quarterbacks don't have a huge history of success as starters...How Ridder will handle an offense that uses motion pre-snap 62.3% of the time -- fifth-highest in the NFL -- and an offense lining up in the pistol an NFL-high 37% of the time is unclear. But the physical skills, Atlanta's defenders have seen some of it.

RIDDER'S FIRST PLAN was a success. He attached himself to Mariota to try and learn as much as possible. Mariota and Ridder were the first players in the building daily, going through plays and scripts early as preparation. Ridder, realizing where he was in his own rookie development, recognized the need to push himself in addition to the help Mariota and the coaches provided.

Ridder began using the flash card learning tool Quizlet to help accelerate his process. Quizlet creates digital flashcards to help facilitate learning and memorization, part of what Ridder needed to jump-start the process. Prior to Quizlet, Ridder said, he was finding there were small details he wasn't grasping.

Throughout his football life, he always has sought different ways to improve. This helped him marry formation and playcall together. The toughest thing to pick up, London said, is the playcall process. Often in college, it's completely different than the NFL -- signals or signs instead of calls -- a mental transition as difficult as a physical one.

All of it has helped. In those post-practice workouts, Darby said Ridder has started finishing the playcall before London.

"From rookie minicamp to now, it's like a whole different dude," said running back Caleb Huntley, a post-practice regular. "Every practice, it's little things he's gotten better at. Accuracy, the deep ball, just different reads and where the ball needs to go on a given play.

"He's made progress in that area and also being a leader."

Where situationally Atlanta had been strong the first half of the season on third down, in two-minute situations and in the red zone, the Falcons faltered the past five weeks, converting one-third of their third down chances, scoring touchdowns on 53.8% of their red zone trips (No. 14 in the league) and scoring in the red zone 76.9% of the time, tied with Indianapolis for No. 27 in the NFL.

Handling situational football is one of the most important tenets of playing quarterback to Smith, and the Falcons were having issues. Atlanta wasn't moving the ball, scoring or winning. It was time to make a change and see what Ridder can do.

There's no guarantee it will be better than what Mariota did, because Mariota's experience was valuable, and his ability to run helped create many opportunities for Atlanta's running backs in zone reads. Ridder is a rookie, and there's always a level of unpredictability there.

But he has been working for a year for this -- really since he was a kid when he stopped playing linebacker in order to play quarterback full-time in sixth grade. What he has done as a backup and how he has prepared to start has led him here.

Ridder is getting a real shot as an NFL starting quarterback.

ESPN

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Progress in Week 2 for DR.

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Ridder not exactly locking down the QB spot long term.

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[HMFFL]

Falcons encouraged by Desmond Ridder, won't name long-term starter

https://thefalconswire.usatoday.com/2023/01/11/falcons-desmond-ridder-nfl-qb-arthur-smith/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook

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[Jamaaliver]

D@mn...32 out of 32?!?

[Jamaaliver]

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[HMFFL]

D@mn...32 out of 32?!?

Ridder has more weapons than many of the other QB's. I feel more confident in him than the so called experts do. 32nd...lol

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[Jamaaliver]

Falcons will find out soon if they chose wisely with Ridder



There was a significant moment in the early days of the Falcons’ Arthur Smith/Terry Fontenot regime when Justin Fields — standout college quarterback, Georgia native, potential marketing jackpot — fell into their lap before the fourth pick of the 2021 NFL Draft and they chose to brush him off.

But now it’s about Desmond Ridder. Because two years later, the Falcons’ success doesn’t hinge on the surrounding cast; it hinges on a second-year quarterback we don’t know much about.

Ridder started the last four games of the 2022 season, improving from understandably shaky in New Orleans (97 passing yards, no touchdowns, 59.3 quarterback rating) to pretty efficient against Tampa Bay (224 yards, two touchdowns, 108.2 quarterback rating). But four games are too small of a sample for such a major decision.

The Falcons’ words, actions and inactions indicate they believe in Ridder. They haven’t drafted another quarterback. They haven’t brought in a veteran starter who legitimately can be considered a threat to take over now and in the future. The safety net after Ridder is Taylor Heinicke, who’s basically Marcus Mariota Lite...

It’s simple: Ridder either proves he’s a quarterback Smith believes he can win with, or the Falcons will go into their fourth offseason having to push reset on the most important position on the field. It would be a fixable situation, but not ideal.

“The thing that sticks out is the leadership, the wiring,” Kyle Smith said of Ridder. “At that position, there’s a lot of different skill sets; there’s a lot of physical attributes you have to have to play that position. But what separates the players is from the neck up, not just from an intelligence perspective (but also) how you face adversity, how you’re wired, your toughness, your mindset, all those things, and he has all those.

“There are things he needs to work on, but the intangibles are what jumped out. If you don’t have it from the neck up, it’s really hard in this league.”

There is talent around Ridder. Three first-round picks have been spent on offensive weaponry — a tight end (Pitts), a wide receiver (Drake London) and a running back (Bijan Robinson). The Falcons also found a gem in the fifth round of the 2022 draft with running back Tyler Allgeier, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards and 53 first downs as a rookie. They retain all-purpose back Cordarrelle Patterson. They signed backup tight end Jonnu Smith, who wasn’t great in New England but had a career season in 2020 with Arthur Smith as his offensive coordinator in Tennessee (41 receptions, eight touchdowns). The wide receiver group seems thin after London, but that’s more than enough offensive skill and versatility to evaluate Ridder, who will have had an entire offseason to prepare as the starter.

The Falcons head coach touched on the importance of building a foundation before drafting the quarterback last week when he told The Athletic, “Those were good football teams that Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger stepped into, and as they found success and won, and they started getting bigger contracts, they were playing at a different level.”

The Falcons should be at a higher level this season. Now it’s about Ridder proving he belongs up there with them.

The Athletic

[graymule]

To me, one of the reasons that the Falcons drafted Desmond Ridder was because he had "it." Playing college football and establishing a winning team while he was there, leading them higher than they had ever been.

Ranked at the bottom of all the QB's in the NFL is an insult to him and to the entire Falcon orginization. Everyone ignores our #2 man, Taylor Heinike and, in reality, he's a pretty good back-up QB. To me, the question is, "What do all these other quarterbacks have that makes them so much better than ours?"

#32? Sure, some may be better but there are several I wouldn't want to trade for, ours for theirs, even swap. I really like our QB!

[Jamaaliver]

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[Jamaaliver]

The disrespect continues.

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[graymule]

This just can't continue. Ridder was unbeaten at home in college. Then he comes to Atlanta. He is 2-0 at home with
the Falcons! Since we open at home, keep up the good work! Falcons have offensive weapons now that we didn't have
in our last four games last year. One was out, injured. The other one was still in Texas and in school.

[Jamaaliver]

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