'They F'ed Up!': Falcons Rookie QB Desmond Ridder Issues Bold NFL Draft Challenge

Atlanta, selecting him in the third round, might mean the Falcons were big winners.

Desmond Ridder was the second quarterback to come off the board in the 2022 NFL Draft.

That's good, right?

Not to Ridder, who now has a permanent chip on his shoulder as he preps to roll into the Atlanta Falcons headquarters ...

"They done f'ed up,'' Ridder told Atlanta GM Terry Fontenot when the Falcons brass called him to tell him he was being drafted on Day 2 with the No. 74 overall pick. "I ain't even gonna lie."

While Cincinnati QB Ridder did hear his name called ahead of most of the other QB prospects, the 22-year-old has decided to feel snubbed after living through the rest of the league passing on him for two rounds.

"It shouldn't have taken this long,'' the kid told the GM.

The video of the congratulatory-phone-call conversation is a must-watch to understand that Ridder isn't "bragging'' as much as he is expressing disappointment over the wait.

And Fontenot wisely works to help the kid learn to funnel that emotion into a winning direction.

Some mock drafts throughout the pre-draft process projected him as going at the bottom of the first round or somewhere in the second. The mock drafts were wrong.

Atlanta, selecting him in the third round, might mean the Falcons were right.

Is this a "tremendous value,'' as many have said?

No. Not yet.

But in his final year at Cincinnati, Ridder helped the Bearcats to the college football playoffs and was the two-time AAC Offensive Player of the Year. Now comes the next step, as he'll work behind "mentor'' Marcus Mariota, and then maybe even compete for the No. 1 QB job here.

“They are both very athletic quarterbacks, and that’s a good thing that he has looked up to Marcus,” coach Arthur Smith said. “It’ll be a really good room.”

And eventually? If he succeeds? Desmond Ridder will be right. The NFL will have "done f'ed up.''