A lot of people thought that the Atlanta Falcons would consider drafting a quarterback in the 2022 NFL Draft. They eventually proved those people right when they selected Desmond Ridder with the No. 74 overall pick out of Cincinnati.

It was a long slide down the draft board for every quarterback except Pitt’s Kenny Pickett. Pickett was selected No. 20 overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers, as he was the only quarterback selected in the first round. There wasn’t actually another one picked until Ridder went off the board.

Ridder will likely spend a majority of the 2022 season sitting behind Marcus Mariota, who the Falcons signed as a free agent in the offseason. Coincidentally, the player that Ridder received some comparisons to throughout the draft process was Mariota, so he could learn a lot sitting behind him at the beginning of his career.

Atlanta began rookie mini-camp recently and Ridder has been on the standouts. The team released a video of some of the work that Ridder is putting in during practice.

While some people will lament this as something that he should be doing, this is certainly a positive development for the Falcons. Yes, it is very early in the process, but people are not afraid to voice their opinion when they see something in a video that can be picked apart.

Look at the reaction that the video from the Miami Dolphins stirred up. Tua Tagovailoa threw a deep ball to Tyreek Hill that was underthrown and it has become a hot topic of discussion.

There hasn’t been anywhere near as visceral of a reaction to Ridder’s hype video, which is certainly a good thing. Ridder has plenty of work to do before taking over the starting job for the Falcons, but performing well in workouts is certainly the first step in that process.

Falcons’ head coach Arthur Smith does wonders offensively. Now that Atlanta is beginning to get some playmakers in the building, we could see him starting to get very creative, which will only benefit Desmond Ridder in the long run.