Atlanta Falcons are making a big mistake keeping Taylor Heinicke

Taylor Heinicke was expected to be Desmond Ridder's backup for all of last season but ended up finding himself on the field a few times. Things did not go well for him and it seemed like he was a foregone cap casualty this offseason.

Here we are in the latter parts of March and he is still on the roster, even after they paid him a roster bonus this past weekend. This is a big mistake by the Atlanta Falcons.

Atlanta Falcons should have released Taylor Heinicke

Taylor Heinicke's contract figure is among the highest in the league for backup quarterbacks. Releasing him would save the team $5.7 million with a dead cap hit of $3.3 million. Those are numbers that justify the release after what we saw last season.

Nevertheless, it looks like the Falcons' intention is to go another season with him as their backup—hopefully, this time, permanently.

Let's call a spade a spade, this makes absolutely no sense. Heinicke played at a level that doesn't even justify a backup role, that is how bad he was.

Call me crazy but I would rather see Desmond Ridder as the backup. Heinicke played worse than Ridder when you evaluate the film.

Not to mention, the stats aren't pretty either. Taylor Heinicke had a bad-throw percentage of 24.2% last season which was the second worst in the NFL among quarterbacks who threw more than 100 passes. For reference, Ridder's was 14.7% which was the 32nd worst. Even the season prior with the Commanders he sat at 18.1%.

This doesn't even take into account the number of wide-open receivers he glanced over.

This is a strange decision. Maybe they do decide to move on from him, but that would make it even more confusing considering they paid him his significant roster bonus. Maybe they are using him to throw teams off their scent in the 2024 NFL Draft? I don't know, at this point I am just grasping at straws.

Why not sign Carson Wentz who Zac Robinson worked with last year? That is a better option than keeping Heinicke.