Falcons Coach Arthur Smith Doesn't Treat QB Desmond Ridder Like a Rookie

Ridder was selected in the third round of this year's NFL Draft.

The Atlanta Falcons selected Desmond Ridder in the third round of this past NFL Draft, but head coach Arthur Smith doesn't see the Cincinnati quarterback as a rookie.

"I don't treat him like a rookie," Smith proclaimed after Wednesday's practice. "The worst thing you can do is sit there and lower the expectations for somebody. We're trying to get him ready to play real Sunday NFL football, and if you make it too easy on him, you're not doing him a favor."

While Ridder may not be the starting quarterback going into the season for the Falcons, there's an expectation that the team will look for him to be the franchise signal-caller someday.

"I've got high expectations for Desmond," Smith said following the Jets game. "We're going to be hard on Desmond, because he's a good player and can take that kind of coaching. He understands that we're not waiting on him as a rookie; we're trying to speed him up."

Ridder faced some big tests as the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bearcats last season. He helped lead a Group of 5 football team to the College Football Playoff for the first time ever. It led him all the way to the Cotton Bowl last season to face the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide.

"The thing I like about Des is he's a tough kid, came from a tough program," Smith said on The Rich Eisen Show. "I like the way he's wired."

During his entire career at Cincinnati, Ridder went 44-6, losing just two games since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Those two losses came against the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide, both of whom have won a national championship in the last two years.

In order to be a perennial winner, you have to mentally prepare in a certain way. It's something that the Falcons loved from him during the pre-draft process.

"It's not really that bravado that he can take it, it's just kind of the way his mental makeup (is)," Smith told Eisen. "There's a lot of work that goes into the pre-draft process, but once you really get to know the person, what his personality is like, and as a player, what makes him tick, that's when you find out the best way to coach him."

Given the team's research into Ridder, Smith feels the best way to coach his rookie quarterback is to treat him like anything but.