Taylor Heinicke left the game yesterday against the Cardinals going 8-15 with 55 yards, and he didn’t injure his hamstring until early in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals came into yesterday’s game giving up 223 passing yards per game, so it’s not like the Falcons were playing the Legion of Boom. Earlier today The Morning Shift explained why Taylor Heinicke’s performance against Arizona proved that it’s time to go back to Desmond Ridder as the starter.
Later on in the show former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and now Atlanta Falcons Radio Network Analyst, Dave Archer, joined The Morning Shift crew to help them continue to break down the game, and when Mike Johnson asked him what the Falcons need to do to fix the downfield passing game Dave said the problem revolves around a “quarterback issue”.
“Well I would go as far as to say that it was a quarterback issue yesterday. I thought Taylor was reluctant to turn it loose, he had guys loose, he had guys open.” Dave also would go on to say that he thought Heinicke’s eyes “went the wrong way” on a few plays as well, and that he “would not be surprised” if Ridder is the starter against the Saints after the Falcons by week.
Right now Taylor isn’t doing anything Desmond can’t do, Ridder looks like he gives the Falcons the best chance to win again, and Arthur Smith and the Falcons front office still need to let Ridder develop to find out if he is the guy or not, so at this point there’s no reason for Heinicke to continue to be Atlanta’s starting quarterback.