Desmond Ridders poor QB play is holding the Atlanta Falcons back

July 28, 2024

Among the few people who appear genuinely puzzled by Desmond Ridder’s inability to at least impersonate a starting NFL quarterback are, alas, decision-makers for the Atlanta Falcons, the team that drafted him.

As October begins, the NFC South is every bit as wide open and flawed as many expected the division to be, with first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks Tom Brady and Drew Brees no longer making it their province. The Falcons were a somewhat fashionable pick to cash in on this opening, with media chatter about an improved offensive line and an array of athletically freakish targets for Ridder in the passing game. The running back position has been systematically devalued around the NFL, but Atlanta selected one with the draft’s eighth pick because Bijan Robinson was going to change the entire offense from Day 1, silly. The Falcons were going back to the future, and the Dirty Birds were going to party like it’s 1999 by playing football like it’s 1999.

Except none of that is actually happening, and it’s already looking to some coaches and executives around the league as though the 2-2 Falcons, with their utter stubbornness about the most important position in professional sports, wasted a prime opportunity to host at least one playoff game. With the equivalent of a half-season’s worth of starts to his name, Ridder seems limited by modern quarterbacking standards, with nothing in his physical tools (ball-placement accuracy, arm strength, deep passing acumen, twitch or acceleration) portending an ascent. He has an 82.1 passer rating since taking over for Marcus Mariota heading into Week 15 of 2022 — 25th among all passers in that span — with just five touchdown passes (three of them from inside the 4-yard line) and an astounding 2.1 percent touchdown rate (4.3 is the league average). He has averaged 6.2 yards per pass (ranking 30th) and, with poor instincts and a tendency to hold the ball too long, he is getting sacked on nearly 10 percent of his passing attempts (31st).

Fear not, Falcons fans: He is backed-up by a gutsy, run-around-and-and-see-if-he-can-make-a-play vagabond in Taylor Heinicke. (“A poor man’s Gardner Minshew,” as one NFL scout I know likes to call him.) On second thought, um, perhaps the solution for how to fix this offense — which has scored 62 points, tied for second-to-last in the NFC — will not come from within.

“They f---ed it up at quarterback” is how one NFL GM put it during training camp when asked about Atlanta’s potential to win the suspect NFC South. “They don’t have one.” (The GM spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to discuss the rosters of rival teams.)

Another GM, under the same restrictions, was recently asked about Ridder’s abilities. “You can’t win in this league with him as your starting quarterback,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what division you are in. … They should have gone after Lamar Jackson when they had the chance.”

The Ridder truthers — who are hard to find outside Atlanta — could once cling to the fact that at least their guy didn’t really turn the ball over, but now even that supposed strength has been shattered after a three-turnover dud in a loss to Jacksonville. Of course, when you never push the ball down the field, you tend not to throw picks. For all the high-percentage passing, he still is barely completing 62 percent of his attempts this season, with a 77.9 rating, three touchdowns and three interceptions. The Falcons have mustered one touchdown over the past two weeks, and Ridder offers no value with his legs — not even as much as Heinicke, his backup.

The problem with most NFL power rankings

Most damning of all, the Falcons’ high-end pass catchers are wallowing. Wide receiver Drake London (the eighth pick of the 2022 draft) is averaging 4.5 catches for 57 yards per game in eight games with Ridder, with just two touchdowns. Tight end Kyle Pitts (taken fourth overall in 2021) was hurt by the time the Falcons finally got around to benching the failing Mariota for Ridder last season, but through four games this season he has 11 catches for all of 121 yards. Pitts is 6-foot-6 with a massive wingspan and catch radius, giving him an immediate advantage over almost any defensive back, but he is apparently not a sufficient weapon in the red zone, where he has two targets all season.

Owner Arthur Blank stayed too loyal for too long to Matt Ryan, paying him top-end money for pedestrian play, and now he doesn’t seem to want to get real about the cost of doing business at quarterback — or use a high draft pick on one. So the Falcons are stuck, and Coach Arthur Smith said Monday that the team is sticking with Ridder as its starter. Still, with no one likely to run away with the division, it says here we see Heinicke soon enough, though that will be another bitter pill for Falcons fans to swallow. Four of the Falcons’ six NFC South games come after their Week 11 bye, and it’s hard to see this experiment lasting that long.

Notes from around the league

C.J. Stroud continues to look the part of a franchise quarterback for the Houston Texans. I asked a few people for comps for him over the weekend, and one evaluator I respect sees visions of Joe Burrow in the Texans rookie quarterback. Wow.

The AFC South is shaping up to be far more compelling than expected, with every team in the division now 2-2. Even with the Jaguars winning in workmanlike fashion over the Falcons in London on Sunday, they have yet to look like contenders to some rival decision-makers. Staying in London to face the Bills this weekend is a tough ask, and some of the same NFL lifers who a year ago told me the Jaguars were live to win that division when most had already written them off are now leaving the bandwagon. “I don’t buy them,” one GM said.

“Doesn’t look like the same team [as in the second half of last season] to me. They might not even win that [division].”

After the two-game stint in England, the Jaguars play three more games in the States — including games at New Orleans and Pittsburgh — before catching their breath with a Week 9 bye. …

The Eagles survived again, this time in overtime against the Commanders, but Jalen Hurts has been sacked 26 times in his past 10 games. …

Bill Belichick has been known to cut bait on top picks once determining they can’t be who he thought they were. Might that even extend to quarterback Mac Jones, the handpicked successor to Brady? I don’t see why not, especially if the Patriots remain buried in the standings. If nothing else, he’ll yield more than the 49ers got for fellow star-crossed quarterback Trey Lance out of that same draft class. …

Some executives think it’s time the Bengals sat Burrow for a few weeks to let that sore calf heal. At 1-3, that might be a tough ask, but the Bengals’ offense looks more broken than in previous Septembers.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGeAcH2PaGdsZ5SawK67zZ1kq6GUmbKzecWao5ynnqh6ta3YpaarZZiatq%2B1wqScaA%3D%3D