The Atlanta Falcons opened their 2023 preseason campaign against the Miami Dolphins and came out of Hard Rock Stadium with an impressive win and performance from some of the second- and third-stringers. The starters, for either team, did not take the field on Friday night.
The issue is the Falcons are not the Dolphins. One is a team in a rebuild the other is competing for a title.
Jarvis Davis, executive producer and host for the Locked on Atlanta Podcast Network, joined Caleb Johnson on "The Dopey Millennials Show" and shared his thoughts on Arthur Smith's decision to sit his starters and more importantly his young quarterback.
"To be honest, it was a missed opportunities for certain players," said Davis when asked about the decision. He went on to list how Ridder's lack of experience means he needs as many live game reps as possible to get him ready to be a starter, "If Matt Ryan is the quarterback no one cares if he plays in the first preseason game. But you have a quarterback who only has four games under their belt."
Other young signal callers like, Kenny Pickett, Bryce Young, and CJ Stroud all saw action in their first preseason games.
Ridder made four starts in his rookie season after taking over for Marcus Mariota. In those four games Ridder earned a 63.5 percent completion rate, threw two touchdowns, and a quarterback rating of 86.4. Modest numbers, definitely room for improvement. As Davis mentioned, "How can you get better as a quarterback... by playing more games."
Arthur Smith did announce that Ridder and the rest of the starters will see game action next week against the Bengals.
