It is becomingly increasingly apparent that not many people believe in Desmond Ridder as the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback of the future.
Some have been speculating that the Falcons could (and should) make a trade for another quarterback, with Justin Fields’ name coming up in conversations this past week.
However, Ridder does not let that type of talk bother him.
“For me, I don’t let the outside noise kind of affect me,” Ridder said in his Wednesday press conference, via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “I just know what I have to do every single day and that’s to improve. We talk a lot about here of the growth mindset, and for myself that’s coming in watching the film — like I said, I had eight hours to watch it on the plane, watched it twice over there, so it’s just about coming in here and getting better every single day. Not only myself but every other guy on this team getting better, so we can improve as a team.”
Through the first four games of this season, Ridder has thrown for 744 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 62.2 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 77.9.
Most recently, the 24-year-old went 19-for-31 with 191 yards, a touchdown, two picks and a lost fumble in a 23-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday.
Desmond Ridder is also not worried about a potential benching.
“That’s playing in fear and that’s not something I want to do or would advise anyone to do is to play in fear, or to play like someone’s looking over your back,” Ridder said. “… When you start to play with that fear you start to second guess things. … When you get into that game of oh, is he going to bench me? Oh, is he going to do this? That’s when you start to get into a lot of crappy play and a lot of fear.”
The University of Cincinnati product was taken by the Falcons in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He made four starts during his rookie campaign, throwing for 708 yards and a couple of touchdowns.
Atlanta is 2-2 on the year and will take on the Houston Texans on Sunday.
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