The Atlanta Falcons benched second-year quarterback Desmond Ridder earlier this season in favor of veteran quarterback Taylor Heinicke. But when Heinicke suffered a pulled hamstring in Sunday afternoon’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, Ridder had to take over at quarterback once again, and head coach Arthur Smith was pleased by what he saw from the young quarterback.
During his postgame press conference, Arthur Smith said that it was “definitely encouraging” to see how Desmond Ridder performed against the Cardinals.
“He settled, was very confident,” Smith said according to Pro Football Talk. “If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have pulled the ball right there [on his touchdown run], I can tell you that. That play will tell you a lot because if you don’t want the ball in your hands it would’ve been real easy to hand it off.
“That’s one assessment I can give you just stating the obvious. And not living in his fears, that’s basically the same play where the ball popped out against Tampa.”
Ridder did not play that much in the game, but he completed 4-of-6 passes for 39 yards and had a 9-yard go-ahead touchdown run late in the game.
Smith was not willing to make any announcement about the team’s starting quarterback the remainder of the season, but he did acknowledge that the way Ridder performed on Sunday “will definitely have an effect” on that decision.
