Rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder will start for the Atlanta Falcons when the team returns from their bye week to face the Saints in New Orleans, according to a league source. Here’s what you need to know:
- Atlanta drafted Ridder in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Ridder helped lead Cincinnati to an appearance in the College Football Playoffs in the 2021 season.
- Ridder will replace veteran Marcus Mariota, who has started every game for the Falcons this season. Mariota went 5-8 as Atlanta’s starter.
- Mariota completed 61.3 percent of his passes this season, which ranks 30th out of 33 qualified quarterbacks. He threw for 2,219 yards with 15 touchdown passes and nine interceptions, resulting in an 88.2 passer rating.
- The Falcons have lost four of their last five games before their bye week in Week 14.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
Evaluation time for Rider
We can all argue and say, “This should have happened sooner,” but that doesn’t matter now. The Falcons have four games — assuming they don’t make the playoffs — to rate Ridder as a starting quarterback. That should be enough of a summary for coach Arthur Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot to determine if they need to go in a different direction in the offseason. The Falcons will have a lot of cap space after the season, so theoretically they could sign a quarterback in free agency, purchase one commercially, or draft one again. But if Ridder shows enough promise, they can spend their fortunes elsewhere. It’s unfortunate that Ridder won’t have the advantage of tight end Kyle Pitts being out for the season, but it will be interesting to see how other players on offense react to a new player in the huddle. — Schultz
What will Ridder face
Ridder seemed comfortable on Atlanta’s offense during the long preseason season, but he has yet to appear in a regular-season game. In the last four games of the regular season, he meets the defensemen ranked 16th (Saints), 14th (Ravens), 24th (Cardinals) and 8th (Buccaneers) in the NFL in defensive EPA per game allowed. How he’ll fare now that the defense plans to stop him is unknown, but lately it probably won’t be much worse than Mariota. From Week 9 through Week 13, a stretch in which Atlanta lost four of five games, Mariota was 29th in the league in the EPA per dropback (-0.09) and the Falcons averaged 17.6 points per game, which finished 26th in the league. – Kendall
backstory
The Falcons went into quarterback rebuild mode during the offseason by selling former NFL MVP Matt Ryan to the Colts. Atlanta signed Mariota in free agency in March and drafted Ridder about a month later.
What you say
“We will evaluate everything. Any job is open,” Smith said after the Falcons’ Week 13 loss to the Steelers. “I have some private thoughts but we need to relax, we need to meet as collaborators. Sure, we were close, but we have to evaluate everything, get back over the hill, back into the winning category.”
Smith added, “You want to make sure you’re doing the right thing, not overreacting emotionally, but changing at times, yes, there are many examples that can help spark something.”
Mariota acknowledged the possibility of his bench press after the Pittsburgh loss.
“That’s not where my mind is,” he said. “I’m still trying to think about what happened in the game. At the end of the day, they must make a decision that is best for the team. What happens happens, but I’m not really thinking about that at the moment.”
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(Photo: Brett Davis / USA Today)