MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

Along the same lines as Chicago having full confidence in Fields... the media has been ripping on Atlanta because they stuck with Desmond Ridder as the starting QB rather than drafting someone new and shiny at #8. I checked 16 "power rankings" articles. Atlanta averaged 25th in the league, and 11 of the 16 had them as the third or last team in the NFC South, which was generally rated as the NFL's worst division. Naturally, Ridder was the main reason, as noted in some of their comments:

"The Desmond Ridder thing is a prank, right?" - Bo Wulf, The Athletic
"Atlanta still doesn't have a quarterback and the defense has struggled for years." - Logan Reardon, NBC Sports
"They have belief in second year quarterback Desmond Ridder, which will likely decide if [head coach Arthur] Smith is back for a fourth year." - Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
"The Falcons are really going with [Ridder] as their starting quarterback." - Mark Lane, Yahoo! Sports (picking Atlanta as the league's worst team)

You get the idea.


Ridder's debut last season was a rough outing. He showed consistent improvement each week after that, to the extent that the coaching staff is convinced he's capable of leading the offense.

That strong development is something that I think Lane, Reardon, Prisco and the rest are simply not grasping. In those next three starts, Ridder completed 60 of 89 passes for 611 yards, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and a passer rating of 94.36. Does that sound like a walking disaster to you?

I'm obviously biased, but to me that sounds like someone who is more than capable of leading Atlanta's run-heavy offense. So go eff yourself, Bo Wulf. It's not a prank. Still, let's put a little more context around his development...


Here's the drill: take every starting quarterback, look at their 2nd through 4th career starts, and calculate their QB passer ratings for those three games. Let's see how Ridder's early development stacks up against every other starter in the league. I'm leaving out Green Bay, Indianapolis, Houston and Carolina since their starting QBs don't have four career starts yet. A few other teams (eg Titans) have a guy with less than four starts competing with a more experienced QB. Use the veteran for those teams.

Best in the league? Mahomes (not much of a surprise there) had a stunning QB rating of 137.37. Four others had ratings above 100 for those three-game spans: Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, and Tua Tagovailoa. Three more were in the mid 90s - Jimmy Garoppolo (95.79), Joe Burrow (95.70), and Ridder (94.36). Aaron Rodgers tops the remaining twenty at 85.54.

Ridder's three-game span ranked #8 out of the 28 current starting QBs with at least four career starts. Let that sink in for a moment. It's not doom and gloom in Atlanta at all. We're happy with our quarterback, we have some good targets for him in Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Cordarrelle Patterson, we have a powerhouse rushing attack, and this offseason we've discovered a newfangled invention called "defense".

It's only a three-game stretch, so it's not enough to say Ridder is a future MVP or anything like that. But it's enough to say that his career got off to a better start than the media writers understand. And it's definitely enough to say those writers at Yahoo! and NBC Sports are lazy idiots who probably used ChatGPT to create their power rankings.

If you want to see the full list of QB ratings, I posted it here:
Passer ratings for career 2nd-4th starts

 

Seems as if writers are mis-construing things they write about, some deliberately and some out of shear ignorance from the lack of study/research on a particular team. It also seems that owners and leading contributing managers of various sports sites including all the 'Big Dogs', like ESPN, cBS, The Athletic especially and Yahoo, well you name it, they dont have a good quality control system in place, no one wants to put in work and research thing and do the homework, they just opinionate basically in a sorta lazy approach. You can go to a Twitter sports account and watch/read 'fans' on any given day correct these guys and they dont seem to care.

Im also viewing this from a comparison standard from days and years gone by... we dont have the 'talent' out there like we did growing up. Back in the day and not really too long ago, writers had an education, at least a sports back-ground and the objective was to be objective, not worrying about the 'click-bate' era we live in today. You'd think with the modern technologies of today, which were basically non-existent back then, would be utilized in a more honest, factual fashion, but all people want today is more 'click-bate, hits and attention, so being controversial pays more today than being factual and honest. Look at these 'pro' Talking Heads like Colin Cowherd and the likes... they literally dont know there butts from a hole in the ground, stir up controversial subjects and then ride that to the top of the food chain.

Bottom line for me is todays beat-writers and sports entities have lost all awareness of accountability and integrity. It gets tiring having to use discernment constantly and statistical and fact researching just to see if what someone wrote is even true.

I use every online source available to just keep up the news machine here at L4SN, but discerning whats good or whats garbage isnt always easy and seems to wear many disguises.

 

And by the way... When the Falcons win the South there will be a large helpin' of some good ol' Southern Fried Crow for all those wannabees out there.

 

I do believe they should be considered the favorites to win the division.

First, bear in mind that last season there was only a one-win difference between first place and last place, so all four teams were neck-and-neck going into the offseason. From there it's largely a question of who gained the most and who lost the most. Since this is the "Monday Morning Quarterback" thread, I'll focus mostly on the QBs - which is appropriate since all three of the other teams have new starters this year.

Tampa will reportedly have a true competition between Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield. The catch is they're trying to replace Tom Brady. Good luck with that. And it's not just Brady - Tampa has lost a LOT of other players across the roster and hasn't managed to replace them all. They look like they're stepping backwards rather than moving ahead.

Likewise, New Orleans keeps kicking the salary cap can down the road and once again shed some top players in the process. They did sign free agents to replace them, but this isn't really moving forward.

Their big headline move was signing David Carr. And yes, that's important.

How big of an upgrade is he? Well... it's a 66.7% completion rate for 7.6 yards per attempt, 4.8% of throws resulting in touchdowns, 2.4% resulting in interceptions and a QB passer rating of 95.2. It's not entirely apples to apples as the two QBs were playing with different offenses around them, but the comparison is 60.8% complete for 7.0 yards per attempt, 4.8% touchdowns, 2.8% interceptions, and a passer rating of 86.3.

But here's the part that might surprise a lot of people: Carr was that second set of numbers. The first set was Andy Dalton's performance last season for the Saints.

I'm certainly willing to go along with the idea that Carr is an upgrade, but the point is that he'll have to step it up and return to his 2019-2020 form for it to make a real difference in the team's results compared to what they got last year from Dalton. And outside of Carr and Jamaal Williams, everything else they've done this offseason has been sideways moves, perhaps with a few downgrades. They also have Dennis Allen as coach instead of Sean Payton.

Carolina has an exciting can't-miss #1 overall pick phenom rookie QB to replace last year's exciting can't-miss former #1 overall pick phenom QB and exciting can't-miss former #3 overall pick phenom QB.

Sure, the future looks bright in Charlotte. But something that gets overlooked: after he came off of IR, Sam Darnold played lights out ball for the Panthers. It gets overlooked because they were a 3-8 team at that point, already in rebuild mode with an interim coach and without Christian McCaffrey. Darnold went 4-2 down the back stretch and put up passer ratings above 100 in four of those six games.

So they have the shiny new rookie, but he's still a rookie. And what they already had in hand truly wasn't a problem. Darnold's performances at the end of the season will be hard to top.

And of course, they've lost Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore and Donta Foreman, so it's kinda hard to get too excited about adding Miles Sanders, Adam Thielen and D.J. Chark.

Atlanta is the one team of the bunch that truly has added significantly more to the roster than they've lost. They didn't lose much in the first place (six players who started 9+ games), all of those have been replaced by equivalent players or potential upgrades, and they've added virtually a whole new defense on top of that. And Bijan Robinson.

If you can get behind the idea of Desmond Ridder as the starting quarterback, the Falcons should be ready to rock in the NFC South.

 

Read a couple articles from a couple sites and they ranked Atlanta's draft at #3 in the Division and both pick Atlanta to finish 3rd in the South... main reason, 'failed to address the QB position (non-believers in Ridder, said he was "unproven" and failed to address the pass-rush), they said Campbell and Jarrett were basically old and wont help the pass-rush on a team with just 21 sacks last season. The worst, picked to finish last, was the Buccaneers... I agree with this assessment, but not their junk/reasoning they had for Atlanta.

Im kinda leaning on the South being a tightly contested Division once again, but I also believe when Atlanta gets their hands on their Division foes, twice each team, thats where the separation will come from.

Last years 21 sacks is just a stat, sometimes overrated these stats are. A ball controlling offense that puts up points can and will win games in spite of what a defense has recorded statistically.

I guess the interesting and somewhat silly thing about the Falcons and the South, is there are very few believers in Ridder... Im sold on him thriving this year based on what ive seen from him over the course of the past season. I cant see, in a non-biased view, anything that says differently. There is no reason or evidence or precedent set for Ridder to be worse or a failure.

 

And of course everyone is all giddy over the Panthers because of Bryce Young. I just might enjoy the 'welcome to the NFL kid' treatment he will receive when the shit gets real game 1.

 

The 21 sacks thing is an area where Atlanta will simply have to prove themselves. To me the real question is WHY the defense was so ineffective last year.

Atlanta had an incredible defensive line group including Matt Dickerson, Jaleel Johnson, Anthony Rush, Abdullah Anderson, Jalen Dalton and Timmy Horne.

No, they're not incredible players. They're all practice squad hands and free agents who were signed off the street - except for Horne, who was an undrafted rookie free agent signed off the street. The "incredible" part is that these six guys had 17 combined starts and played over 1200 total snaps for Atlanta's defense last year.

That's the fun of being in cap hell. You have no depth. Before the season began, the line had already lost free agent Vincent Taylor and former second rounder Marlon Davidson to injury and free agent Eddie Goldman to sudden retirement. Rising mid-rounder Ta'Quon Graham then got hurt in midseason. That left defensive coodinator Dean Pees with only Grady Jarrett and the bunch of muppets listed above to play the line.

The six scrubs had five total QB pressures with one sack to show for their 1200+ snaps played.

Anyone else think that might have been part of the problem with Atlanta's pass rush?

 

Matt Ryan joining CBS Sports, says he hasn’t retired

Quarterback Matt Ryan hasn’t announced his retirement, but it doesn’t look like his future will include playing football.

CBS Sports announced on Monday that Ryan has been hired as a studio and game analyst for the 2023 season.

“It is truly an honor to join this exceptional team at CBS Sports,” Ryan said in a statement. “I have been blessed to have incredible teammates throughout my career and I am fortunate that will continue here working with and learning from the very best in the industry.”

Ryan joined Indianapolis last season after 14 years with the Falcons, but played poorly before being benched at midseason. He returned to action after Jeff Saturday replaced Frank Reich as the team’s head coach, but wound up back on the bench for the final three games of the year.

Ryan reiterated that he isn’t announcing his retirement in a Twitter post about his new job and he has no reason to announce his retirement now because he’s still due $12 million from the Colts for this year. There’s been no sign that anyone wants him to play for them, however, and his move into broadcasting suggests that he’s not hearing much interest behind the scenes either.

PFT

 

Steelers' Mason Rudolph returning for sixth season after testing 2023 free agency, per report



Mason Rudolph spent all of last season on the Steelers' bench after a demotion to the No. 3 quarterback job. Two months into a quiet free agency, however, the former third-round draft pick is returning to Pittsburgh, according to 93.7 The Fan.

The terms of Rudolph re-signing are unclear, but the 27-year-old is set to reprise his role as the Steelers' third QB, behind Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky. There had been little reporting about interest from other teams after Rudolph's rookie contract expired in March, though his social media activity briefly sparked rumors of a move to the Falcons.

Rudolph spent last offseason in an open competition for the Steelers' top QB job following Ben Roethlisberger's retirement. Trubisky ultimately opened the year under center, with Pickett, the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, finishing with 12 starts. Pittsburgh has since endorsed Trubisky, the former Bears starter, as a long-term insurance option behind Pickett.


Drafted 76th overall in 2018, Rudolph has 10 career starts under his belt. His most notable run came in 2019, when he went 5-3 filling in for an injured Roethlisberger, despite throwing almost as many interceptions (nine) as total games played (10). He was last seen late in the 2021 campaign, when he threw eight passes off the bench against the Chiefs. Earlier that year, he made an emergency start for Roethlisberger, who had landed on COVID reserve, in a 16-16 tie with the Lions.

cBS

 

Bears QB Justin Fields working to improve specific aspect of game



Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields believes he can improve as a passer by getting the ball out of his hands faster during his third pro season.

"Just being more consistent with my quick game stuff," Fields told Larry Mayer of the Bears' website about what he's working on this spring. "I feel like down the field I'm pretty accurate. Just being more consistent with getting the ball out faster, being more accurate, giving my wide receivers, my running backs, tight ends a better chance to catch the ball and run for extra yards. I'm focusing pretty hard on that this offseason."

Fields undeniably excelled as a runner during his first year working under Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. Per ESPN stats, the 24-year-old was first among quarterbacks and seventh among all players with 1,143 rushing yards across 15 games this past season. He also contributed eight rushing touchdowns.

However, Fields failed to silence critics regarding his passing abilities. He ended the regular season ranked 32nd out of 34 qualified quarterbacks with a 60.4% completion percentage and matched 17 touchdown throws with 11 interceptions. Eberflus explained earlier this month that Fields is spending a second-consecutive offseason working on footwork because the Bears, as a whole, must "improve in the passing game."

Bears general manager Ryan Poles recently voiced his support for Fields and noted he believes the young signal-caller "can take the next step to get this organization to a championship-caliber team." Chicago offensive coordinator Luke Getsy echoed such comments.

"He has a lot more growth ahead of him and we're excited to tap into that," Getsy said of Fields. "Where he was at this time last year to where he is now, I think he's just light-years ahead of where he was, and I feel like he has a ton more to grow forward. We're excited to try to get the best out of him moving forward and keep working toward where we think he can go."

The Bears went all-in on Fields when they acquired assets from the Carolina Panthers for the No. 1 pick in this year's draft rather than using the selection on Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud or Anthony Richardson. That gamble could pay off, or it could cost individuals such as Poles, Eberflus and Getsy their jobs.

YARDBARKER

 

Could Chargers QB become MVP candidate under new OC?



Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert should soar under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, but could he ascend to an MVP level?
"Statistically, Herbert is already one of the very best QBs in the league. Any improvement at all under Moore should make him an MVP candidate," wrote ESPN's Dan Graziano.


Herbert, 25, has established himself as an outstanding QB. Through the past three seasons, he's thrown the sixth-most TDs (94) in the league and ranks third in passing yards (14,089).


Moore, 34, is a sharp offensive mind. From 2019 to 2022, the Cowboys finished top-six in scoring three times while he served as OC. QB Dak Prescott blossomed during this timeframe, throwing 30 TDs or more twice in four seasons under Moore.


Moore and Herbert could be a great match, especially since the QB's skills suit the OC's offensive philosophy. Moore uses concepts from Air Coryell, a passing offense predicated on a dynamic, downfield attack.

The offense thrives when it has a QB with a strong arm, such as Herbert.
Additionally, the Chargers receiving corps should help Herbert and Moore. It includes former Pro Bowler Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joshua Palmer and first-round draft pick Quentin Johnston.


In a recent news conference, Moore said, "No one is ever going to complain about a wide receiver room like this, where you have all of this talent."


So the Chargers have the right mix for Herbert to become a bona fide MVP candidate, which is what they need to vault up the AFC hierarchy.
Per OddsChecker, Herbert has the fifth-best MVP odds. Expect the QB to have a sensational season in 2023.

YARDBARKER

 

While Richardson is expected to be the Colts starter at some point this year, if not by Week 1, Minshew knew there was a chance Indianapolis would use its fourth overall pick on a QB when he signed with the team in mid-March.

As the Colts transition from rookie mini-camp to OTAs, first-year head coach Shane Steichen has not yet committed to a starting quarterback. There’s still an outside chance Indy could bring Richardson along slowly and that Minshew could be the team’s QB1 heading into the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 10.

But that doesn’t mean Minshew isn’t prepared for the day that Richardson does pass him on the depth chart.

"If you have a room that's splintered or rooting against each other, that's no fun for anybody, and it really pulls the team apart," he said. "So I think more than anything, you compete, and you compete to make each other better. You push each other, but at the end of the day whoever's out there, no matter who it is, we're all wanting to win and we're all wanting to help them win. … You want to help the room as much as you can, everybody that's in it."

YARDBARKER

 

I expect Justin Fields to make a huge leap he finally has some blocking and pretty good wr looks like the Bears are getting serious about getting Justin Fields some help about time

 

The latest backhanded jab at Desmond Ridder comes from NFL.com. The clueless putz du jour is Marc Sessler, who lists his top remaining offseason priority for each team. His hot take for Atlanta?

Top priority: Ponder a swap for Ryan Tannehill

The Falcons bear the mark of a rough-and-tumble, fun-to-watch offense. Sign me up for Sunday afternoons starring Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier bashing their way through cowed defensive fronts. Heavy spending on both sides of the ball has this roster ready to compete in a weakened NFC. Ownership on down has backed the concept of Desmond Ridder at the motherboard, but he remains a projection. I remain attached to the idea of Atlanta swinging a trade with Tennessee for Arthur Smith's pal Tannehill. One of the game's grittier passers would fit right into an offense that has the feel of Titans 2.0.



Hmmm... Tannehill turns 35 in July, only has this year under contract, and has a base salary of $27 million just waiting for whatever team trades for him. Yeah, that would be a BRILLIANT move. Gee, I can't believe that no one has traded for him already!

The Falcons have spent the last two years working their way out of cap hell. Somehow I don't see them putting themselves right back in that hole just to rent Tannehill for a year. If Tennessee eats $21 million of that, okay, think about it. But the Titans would then be eating $21 million just to give themselves no option other than making Will Levis the day one starter outside of naming Malik Willis the starter. Doesn't seem like that's gonna happen.


But... but... he's a massive upgrade over Desmond Ridder, right?

Tannehill's last three games in 2022 = QB passer rating of 87.45, so yes, that's a HUGE improvement over Ridder's measly 94.36 for his own last three games. Oh, wait...

 

The Falcons are for some unknown reason the Rodney Dangerfield's of the NFL beat writers when it comes to Ridder. Even if Id take Sessler's 'opinions' as legit, which I dont, in his own words, "he remains a projection"... so if I were to project Ridder based on solid facts in place from last season, a projection would have him rising dramatically. I guess Sessler doesn't know or do research.

 

It's really just the idea that the Falcons would pay top dollar for 35-year old Tannehill that makes it so laughable. They moved on from Matt Ryan. That should have been Sessler's first clue. If Atlanta actually wants an old guy who knows the system, they can bring Matt Ryan back home for a curtain call much cheaper than a trade for Tannehill.


Overall, the media does seem to be coming around. CBS just projected them to win the NFC South, and Peter King did the same in his latest podcast. So a few people out there are starting to realize Atlanta actually has a defense this year that doesn't consist of throwing three practice squad scrubs or undrafted rookies into starting roles.

With Ridder, it will simply take time - and more solid development - for him to get credit for what he has already shown he can do. And he does need to keep working on parts of his mechanics. For the most part he has it, in the sense that 9 of 10 passes will now be on target. But that one other pass of the bunch is still laughably off target, as if he thinks the popcorn man is an eligible receiver.

If Ridder falters, Heinicke went 5-3-1 as a starter last season.

 

Hopefully you don’t have to crack a heiniken open.

 

Can we all understand why this guy is so cool. I mean besides the stache and living in a prison bus

 

Can you elaborate more on this? I havnt heard about this and Im curious now. Gardner is an interesting man and you cant beat the stache.

 

He got a prison bus, refurbished it and parked it outside the Eagles training complex so he didn't have too far to go and work out. Kinda wild but dedicated too.