Desmond Ridder profile: Why the Atlanta Falcons drafted the QB in the 2022 NFL Draft
The Atlanta Falcons picked Desmond Ridder with the 74th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Ridder stands at 6’3” and weighs in at 210 pounds. The former three-star recruit outside the top-1000 came to Cincinnati at just 178 pounds.
Ridder redshirted his first year on campus before bursting onto the scene as the AAC Rookie of the Year. It took him just two offensive series to enter the lineup, and he would never leave it.
Ridder took a slight step back during the 2019 campaign. Still, he has led this program to new heights in the last two years, winning conference titles, back-to-back conference Offensive Player of the Year awards, and his first appearance in the CFP for a Non-Power Five group.
Individually, over those two years, he threw for 5,630 yards and 49 touchdowns compared to 14 INTs while adding another 847 yards and 18 scores on the ground.
He leaves UC as the all-time leader in total yards and touchdowns in school and AAC history and becomes only the third quarterback in FBS history to win 44 or more games.
Desmond Ridder's strengths
Ridder shows a lanky build with a very toolsy skill-set. He operated in an offense that featured plenty of 12 personnel and more pro-style passing concepts, but also included spread elements and heavily featured the RPO game.
As he developed as a processor, the Cincy coaches started putting more on his plate and trusted him to read the entire field. He has the flexible arm to change up his releases and, at times, pop-pass it to his man on the move, like slide routes off run-fakes.
Ridder consistently gets the ball outright at that backfoot hit and delivers it just as his receivers get out of their breaks. He delivers the ball on time to routes breaking outside or back towards him on different depths, with the adequate extent of his drops.
The former Bearcat quarterback isn’t somebody who needs receivers run open but trusts that they’ll be there as he attacks windows in zone coverage. You saw that quite a few times when he had a receiver break inside, and a linebacker had his back turned to drop diagonally and whistled the ball in next to their ear-hole. Yet, if he sees somebody turn their head and get underneath stuff, Ridder can also wait an extra beat to allow his man to clear the ancillary coverage.
He has sufficient arm strength to make opposite-hash throws on deep out routes without the space to step into the throw, but he also makes several beautiful tear-drop throws on fade routes – mainly out of the slot. On rollouts towards the left, he does well to square his shoulders and put the ball at the sideline.
Back in 2019, Ridder had a lot to do with throwing up 50-50 balls. However, he looked much more comfortable scanning the field and actually working through progressions the year after (completing almost 10 percent of his passes and averaging about a yard per attempt more). He played best from his shoulders up this past season.
Ridder executed real NFL passing concepts, where he has to read between the hashes and progress to backside digs, for example. He loves to get the ball out quickly.
There were a lot of hook and hitch routes in the Cincy offense to take advantage of soft spots. Still, he was willing to throw the ball behind the underneath coverage as the defense started tightening up and get some chunk yardage on deep corner routes. For example, he gets the number three in trips matched up with the safety.
The same is true for simple leverage advantages: having his back work towards the flats and the linebacker staying in the hook area due to alignment and a receiving threat in the pattern.
Ridder operates with advanced eye discipline and initially reads the front-side concept, even when he knows before the play starts that he wants to go the other way.
He recognizes when safeties widen too much in cover-two or are flat-footed and is willing to let it fly on post routes. He quickly has the answer for corner blitzes and can float the ball over a safety buzzing down, or drive the ball in before he can cap over the top.
Ridder excels at buying a little extra time and finding new platforms to throw from when there is pressure. He is light on his feet to bail from an interior push, keeping his shoulders pointed downfield as he gains ground and gets ready to release the ball. He also slides well laterally to allow receivers to get to their break and then get the ball out with anticipation with defenders charging in.
If you leave a crease for him against longer-developing games or extra bodies in pressure packages, he can quickly burn it by slicing through before anyone can get a hand on him.
He has those moments of absurd elusiveness, where somebody off the edge perfectly aims at the outside hip or there’s almost a free rusher charging at him at an angle. But he pulls that shoulder way in and takes off right underneath that player.
Along with that, Ridder was frequently featured in the run game and gave his backroom for cutbacks as a legitimate threat when pulling the ball on zone reads. Off that they used H-backs to wrap around to the backside and lead the way for the quarterback. He ripped off several big chunks in a hurry.
He can set up blockers or the defender they attach to with his body language while having the burst to beat them around the corner if they try to cheat inside. Running a 4.52 in the 40 at the combine backs up that speed, and it was on full display on his 91-yard touchdown run versus SMU in 2020. It routinely felt like he was one of the two or three fastest players on the field, and his legs were a major factor in the red zone.
Desmond Ridder's weaknesses
The big flaw in Ridder’s game is his inconsistent accuracy, which goes back to his fundamentals. He tends to rely way too much on his arm and often leads the throwing motion with his elbow, as he drops the ball and elongates his delivery.
His base gets pretty wide as well, and he seems to have that front foot locked into the turf to some degree, leading to imperfect ball-placement on basic route tree stuff.
He has that three-quarter release and can miss some completions by not taking enough off the ball, which leads to some change-ups of going over the top that look unnatural. Often, he puts the ball slightly behind his running backs on swing/flat routes and receivers on bubble screens, to slow them down from just continuing to run with it. The ball has mustard on it when it doesn’t need to, and it goes off the target’s hands.
Ridder’s drops are way too deliberate and lack some urgency, which also limits his ability to be dynamic in his overall delivery. Sometimes you barely saw the feet gain any ground when he knew where he wanted to go pre-snap, but that can tip off defenders to jump those routes.
Alabama batted down four of his passes because they were aware of that and coached their D-line accordingly on T-E twists, where the looper would be ready to get the hands up.
Ridder doesn’t have that eyes-at-the-back quality, or the awareness for pressure off the blindside, and missed opportunities to slide up into creases – strip-sacks. He benefited from having one of the elite defenses in college football these last few years and not being asked to get into shootouts on many occasions.
Conclusion on Desmond Ridder
There’s a lot of things to point out if you want to make a case for Ridder as a prospect. He showed gradual improvement throughout his career, has quality experience with NFL passing concepts, is elusive when moving around, and is just a gamer who lifted Cincinnati to new heights.
However, the inconsistency in his delivery and, therefore, accuracy, and the ability to quickly adjust when plays don’t develop exactly the way he expects is what limits him.
He’s a bit robotic in his approach, but then gets kind of floppy with his arm. If one had to throw anybody out there for Week 1 and expect solid play, Ridder should be their call. A turnover-worthy play rate of just 2.3 percent plays a part in that. It's uncertain if he’s the most natural thrower or has that innate playmaking ability with his arm.
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