The Atlanta Falcons officially ended the Desmond Ridder experience on Tuesday, and it’s becoming very evident they’ll be one of the teams in the quarterback market this spring.
After benching Ridder for journeyman quarterback Taylor Heinicke for the final three games of the season, the Falcons are admitting that Ridder, as promising as his highs were, was not the long-term solution for the team.
Turnovers will do that, as Ridder could not stop fumbling the ball and throwing picks at the worst-possible moments for Atlanta. He can be a good backup quarterback at the least and could still one day grow past these mistakes and be a solid starter for a team. It just wouldn’t be for the Falcons.
Instead, team owner Arthur Blank will spend the next couple of weeks assessing the state of his organization and deciding if coach Arthur Smith is the right person to continue leading the Falcons.
It’s possible he keeps Smith, and it’s possible he fires him. General manager Terry Fontenot feels safe for his stellar free agency acumen and a handful of impressive draft picks, but you really never know with an underperforming team these days. Anything feels possible.
The only certainty is that the Falcons will be one of the teams searching for a quarterback this spring. It will undoubtedly be the organization’s top priority when it comes to adding talent, and it could come in a variety of ways.
They could be a team that goes after Kirk Cousins if he leaves the Minnesota Vikings, and they could technically trade for Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields if they like him more than when they passed on him in the 2021 NFL Draft. They could reunite Smith with Ryan Tannehill after those two made magic together with the Tennessee Titans, but Smith would have to stick around to make that even a vague possibility.
They could be a team that makes a huge trade up in the 2024 NFL Draft for someone like LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels (assuming USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye are the first two off the board and out of reach like we all suspect). They could wait around at their draft positioning to draft someone like Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. or Oregon’s Bo Nix. Heck, maybe even Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy factors in somewhere.
It’s very possible a move up for someone like Daniels could involve the Falcons trading someone like tight end Kyle Pitts and a handful of picks to, say, the Arizona Cardinals if they keep Kyler Murray and trade their high pick, like the Carolina Panthers did with wide receiver D.J. Moore and the Chicago Bears last year. That’s just speculation, though.
If the Cardinals actually want to trade Murray and draft a new quarterback instead, you can bet the Falcons would be in on those conversations.
No matter what, the Falcons will have to make a meaningful investment at quarterback this offseason and try to install Matt Ryan’s official successor.
It wasn’t Ridder, it wasn’t Marcus Mariota and it’s not Heinicke. Whoever it actually is will determine the immediate future of this franchise.
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