Atlanta Falcons: 3 positives from Desmond Ridder’s debut vs. Lions

Third positive for the Atlanta Falcons’ rookie QB: Desmond Ridder showed he has a rocket arm, that he can throw the ball with touch, and that he can make some Patrick Mahomes-esque throws

Let’s start off with a play where the Falcons ran an RPO and Desmond Ridder rifled a pass to Geronimo Allison who basically dropped it. He threw a lightning bolt into the hands of Allison in the middle of the field. That is something that is valuable when you run RPOs because you need to be able to rocket a ball into a tight space in the middle of the field. Ridder showed he can do that.

There were also numerous other plays where it looked like he effortlessly threw a dart to his receiver. The arm strength is there, maybe not to the degree of Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, but it is plenty good.

One play that really stood out was his short pass to Parker Hesse for his first passing touchdown.

It may not look like anything on paper, but it was a beautiful throw that landed in the arms of Hesse. He ran a play-action and just flicked the ball up over the defender and dropped it right into Hesse’s outstretched hands.

Again, on paper, it just goes down as a one-yard touchdown pass but on film, it shows you a guy who understands when to rifle a ball or lollipop it up and over defenders. His touch on the play was brilliant.

The last part is that he showed he can make some throws that very few quarterbacks can make. Patrick Mahomes has made many highlight reel plays where he will launch a ball off-balance and somehow it will be right on target — well, Desmond Ridder showed he can do some of that too.

The two plays that you should focus on were the pass to Geronimo Allison that got the offense down to the one-yard line, as well as his final pass that ended up being the game-winning touchdown.

On the pass to Allison for 20 yards, Ridder came off a play-action to his right and managed to throw a dime to Allison while throwing across his body. People need to realize how hard that throw is. To be able to come off a play-action from the other side, turn your body, and throw across your body right on the money is just special.

Some might say the pass was underthrown but check again, he purposely underthrew it so that the defense had no chance to make a play on the ball.

Then with the game-winning play, he knew he had to at least give his receiver a chance. He was under pressure and managed to throw a pass flat-footed from about the 35-yard line into the endzone on target. Again, that is something that very few quarterbacks can do and he just did it on a game-winning play in his first NFL game……

This kid has some special talent, and I for one, cannot wait to watch him during the final two preseason games.