There’s no debating Desmond Ridder made bad decisions and had bad moments Sunday in the Atlanta Falcons’ 24-16 home loss to the Washington Commanders.
Ridder threw three interceptions, which all came in the second half. But if you think the Falcons starting quarterback regressed yesterday, former Falcons starting quarterback, Dave Archer, had a message for you.
“Anybody that thinks Desmond Ridder regressed as quarterback yesterday is an idiot," Archer said. "You learn things as you play this game. He’s played 10 games, so he’s just barely played a half a season. He’s learning to play the game.
“The biggest thing he’s got to get over and the things he’s got to learn is he’s going to have to deal with the adversity, and the things that bother you the most is that you’re hurting your team, and so those are things he’s learning as well, but anybody thinks that he didn’t get anything out of that, or we’re not a better team, or that he’s not going to be a better quarterback the next time time out because of the things he’s learned just don’t understand the game.”
Archer finished his thought by addressing the fact that Ridder has to continue to learn from his mistakes, and if that doesn’t happen then a different conversation can be had.
“Now if he makes a throw like he did where he gets a little bit panicked and kind of just flipped it out instead of throwing it out of the end zone it’s intercepted, if he does that again then you can start talking about you gotta learn from your mistakes he’s not learning from his mistakes, that’s not the case at all,” Archer said.
It seems like Falcons fans forget that Ridder only played and started in four games last season, and that this season needs to be treated as an extension of his rookie season. The young quarterback is going to make mistakes, as Archer said he’s still “learning the game” and no quarterback in the history of the NFL has fully learned the game in start No. 10. Even though losses like yesterday hurt, patience with Ridder is still needed.
