The Falcons are sitting with a .500 record but atop the division with a 3-0 record against NFC South opponents, putting them in the driver’s seat for a potential home playoff game.
They’ve done so on the backs of a dominant running game and a much-improved defense. It’s an unsustainable way of winning, especially considering the competition the Falcons have faced this season, but the team should never apologize for who they beat and how they beat them.
Still, if you aren’t okay with it in a loss then you shouldn’t be okay with it in a win. This is about Desmond Ridder.
Ridder has been phenomenal in some situations and horrible in others. His entire 2023 campaign has been a bag of mixed results, but his improvements have been marginal at best. Complacency at the quarterback position is how teams get stuck on the hamster wheel of mediocrity. As currently constructed, the Falcons are good enough to win a weak NFC South, but they aren’t serious Super Bowl contenders and they likely won’t be in a position to draft a franchise altering signal caller in the upcoming draft.
Atlanta cannot go into the 2024 season without trying to upgrade the quarterback position, and a media pundit believes the same. ESPN’s Field Yates says the Falcons will be among the teams to watch for next April in the first round to target quarterbacks.
Yates: Teams that will have varying degrees of interest in a Round 1 quarterback include the Patriots, Giants, Falcons, Bears, Commanders, Vikings, Titans, Buccaneers, Cardinals and Rams. It’s a long list! But the only team that I project as a stone-cold lock to take a quarterback that is also within reasonable striking distance of where Williams and Maye will be selected is New England. It’s evident how badly the Pats need a quarterback change right now.
As of right now, the Falcons are not in a place to land one of the top signal callers in the draft, but that doesn’t mean they can’t move up. They have plenty of assets to do so.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling the club will do otherwise. I fear Desmond Ridder will show just enough to fool Arthur Smith and Terry Fontenot into putting their eggs in his basket next season. It will be the storm that sinks their ship.
Hopefully, that’s not the case, Yates is correct, and the Falcons look into acquiring a better option than Ridder. But nothing this regime has done in its first three years has me feeling confident they will go in the right direction when it comes to the quarterback position.
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Photographer: John Korduner/Icon Sportswire
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