Falcons: Benching of Desmond Ridder proves Arthur Smith is lost

Benching Desmond Ridder does nothing for the Atlanta Falcons but make them look like they are, once again, deflecting blame. Arthur Smith decided to move to Taylor Heinicke again and it further proves that he has no idea what he is doing.

For owner Arthur Blank, this should be the second 'final nail' in the coffin of Arthur Smith. He has led to franchise to look like they are disoriented beyond belief.

Arthur Smith continues to make himself look bad as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons

Tell me, what can make a coach look worse than instilling trust in one single quarterback for seven-plus months only to end up benching him twice during the season for a quarterback who, on film, has looked even worse?

This is what Arthur Smith has now done. The franchise all offseason commended and cemented Desmond Ridder as their starter for a pivotal 2023 season. Now, here we are in December and he has been benched for a second time for a quarterback who played even worse than he did.

I know most fans will say that Ridder is worse, but that is not true. Rewatch Heinicke's performances and you will see a quarterback who was consistently ignoring wide-open receivers and was putting countless passes in harm's way.

Ridder has not been good either. He has also been putting the ball in harm's way and the stats show that. As for Heinicke, the stats don't show just how much he was throwing the ball to defenders.

Ridder has at least shown the ability to make a good throw here and there. He has shown that he can be productive using his legs and has put up good passing numbers in a couple of games. Heinicke, meanwhile, was inaccurate, was not seeing wide-open receivers, and was making questionable decisions left and right.

And all of this lands back on the head coach, Arthur Smith, who is disoriented. This feels like a blame game. It feels like he is trying to distract from how poorly he has performed. I firmly believe that this move makes him look even worse in the eyes of Arthur Blank.

At this point, why are we not starting Logan Woodside? We have seen that Ridder shouldn't be starting, we have seen that Heinicke shouldn't be starting, so why not throw a Hail Mary and see what Woodside can do?

It is all a mess that has to be fixed. The only fix is to start over and find a new head coach. Arthur Smith is a great guy and all but has shown that he isn't right for the job.