Desmond Ridder 2022 Outlook
The Falcons selected Ridder with the No. 74 overall pick in the NFL draft. As ESPN.com's Michael Rothstein, it's not a surprise the Falcons took a quarterback. Atlanta GM Terry Fontenot said just days before he hoped to come out of the draft with a new signal-caller as the team has only starter Marcus Mariota and second-year pro Feleipe Franks on the roster. ... Ridder was a four-year starter for the Bearcats and had his best season in 2021, completing 64.9 percent of his passes for 3,334 yards, 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He completed at least 60 percent of his passes in three of four seasons at Cincinnati, threw at least 18 TDs in each season with the Bearcats and never threw more than nine interceptions in a season. Ridder, in his post-pick media call, compared himself to Mariota and said when the team signed him in March, he thought maybe Atlanta would be a place he could end up because of the similarities in their games. The selection of Ridder is the latest move in a busy quarterback offseason for the Falcons, who pursued Deshaun Watson in a potential trade with the Texans, traded franchise QB Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts and signed Mariota, who played under Smith when he was the Titans' offensive coordinator. Ridder joins a situation in which he could end up competing with Mariota for the starting job replacing Ryan, the best quarterback in team history.
