Desmond
Ridder.
Desmond
Ridder.
Cincinnati· 6'3"· 211 lb· 4.52s 40
Ridder runs the offense from shotgun and pistol as a rhythm thrower whose best ball arrives off clean footwork and a defined first read. His release is compact and over the top, and he drives digs, overs and boundary comebacks with real velocity, layering throws between levels when the concept tells him where to go.
The second trait is the run game. He is a true designed-run and zone-read threat who long-strides through creases and finishes forward instead of sliding early, which stresses second-level defenders on every keep. Under pressure his base widens and the ball sails, and off-platform throws drift. The separator is the package: a legitimate runner who still wants to win from the pocket.
Play-action and RPO-heavy spread that wins on half-field reads, with a defined run game built off his legs rather than a full-field timing passing attack.
Year 1 developmental backup with spot-start value; ceiling of a low-end starter in a run-first offense that keeps the reads clean and the pocket moving.
A drop-back Air Coryell or Shanahan-tree timing system that asks him to work the full field from a static pocket and live on anticipation throws into tight windows.
His floor rises with a mobile pocket and a real run game; it collapses the moment an offense needs him to carry it from empty on third down.
Cincinnati QB Desmond Ridder 2021 Highlights
Senior-season cutup: play-action throws to the intermediate levels and designed-run work out of the read game.
Desmond Ridder 2021 Game Highlights vs Notre Dame
The signature win of his career, on the road against a Power Five front, with his poise and legs on display.
Desmond Ridder 2021 Full Season Highlights
Full 2021 reel covering the Playoff run, boot game and the arm strength that carried his Day 2 grade.
A four-year starter at Cincinnati and the quarterback who carried the program from Group of Five curiosity to the College Football Playoff, Ridder arrived in the class as the most experienced passer available. He was an every-down operator with a live arm, a genuine running threat and captain traits scouts praised in every interview setting.
The production backed the resume. He finished with 10,239 passing yards, 87 touchdowns and 28 interceptions across 50 games, added 2,169 rushing yards and 28 rushing scores, and closed with a 3,334-yard, 30-touchdown senior season that earned back-to-back AAC Offensive Player of the Year honors and eighth place in Heisman voting. The flag was accuracy: a 62.1 percent career completion rate, a 55.1 percent sophomore year and misses that showed up on layups more than on hard throws.
The board treated him as the top of the second tier behind the first-round quarterbacks, a Day 2 name with starter-caliber tools who needed a year to clean up his footwork and ball placement. Taking him at this slot was a value swing rather than a franchise declaration, and it bought a developmental starter at a price that would not sink the roster if he never got there.
- 01
Four-year starter
Fifty career starts against playoff-level competition, including a Playoff semifinal, meant almost nothing about the job was going to be new to him.
- 02
Designed-run value
A genuine zone-read and quarterback-power threat with 28 rushing touchdowns, big enough to finish runs and fast enough to turn a keep into an explosive.
- 03
Arm strength to the intermediate
Drives digs, overs and boundary comebacks with velocity, so the field does not shrink when a defense sits in quarters.
- 04
Play-action operator
Full-field footwork off boot and naked action was already NFL-grade, and his best tape came with his back to the defense and eyes downfield.
- 05
Leadership and makeup
A two-time conference Offensive Player of the Year, academic All-American and undisputed locker-room voice with zero character questions attached.
- 01
Ball placement
Career 62.1 percent completion rate with too many misses on layups, and the errant throws tended to come high and behind rather than in a repeatable direction.
- 02
Pressure mechanics
His base widens and his platform breaks down as the pocket shrinks, which turns clean reads into sailed or hurried throws.
- 03
Full-field progressions
Cincinnati's offense leaned on half-field and RPO answers, so his speed getting past the third option was largely unproven.
- 04
Deep-ball touch
Trajectory on shots outside the numbers wandered, forcing receivers to adjust on throws that should have been layered in stride.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.52sp50
- Vertical
- 36inp50
- Broad jump
- 127inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.15sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.29sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Cincinnati | 13 | 194 | 311 | 2445 | 20 | 5 |
| 2019 | Cincinnati | 13 | 179 | 325 | 2164 | 18 | 9 |
| 2020 | Cincinnati | 10 | 186 | 281 | 2296 | 19 | 6 |
| 2021 | Cincinnati | 14 | 251 | 387 | 3334 | 30 | 8 |
| Career | — | 50 | 810 | 1304 | 10239 | 87 | 28 |
Passing verified on cfbstats (2018, 2020, 2021) and ESPN/footballdb (2019, absent from cfbstats); season sums match the 10,239-yard, 87-TD, 28-INT career line. Rushing career reflects the sum of verified seasons (2,169); Cincinnati's own release lists 2,179.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Tools and mobility that buy multiple starting runs, without the accuracy or pressure poise to hold a job down.
The best-case version: an athletic passer who steadies in a run-first, play-action offense and starts a decade once the scheme fits.
Athletic, respected, and ultimately a career QB3 whose arm never separated him from the next name on the practice squad.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Desmond Ridder has played two seasons for the Atlanta Falcons, starting games in both. He served as the primary starting quarterback for most of the 2023 season.
Atlanta sat him behind Marcus Mariota and gave him the last four games of his rookie year, a 2-2 run of turnover-free but conservative football. The Falcons named him the 2023 starter and the season unravelled in public: eight straight starts, the job lost to Taylor Heinicke after a Week 8 concussion check, a reinstatement after the bye, another benching in Weeks 16-17, and a 6-7 finish with 2,836 yards and 12 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. Once Kirk Cousins signed, Atlanta traded him to Arizona for Rondale Moore in March 2024; Arizona released him before the season and Las Vegas signed him in October, where he made one start on Monday night against his former team. He has been roster-fringe since, passing through Minnesota and Green Bay in 2025 before Green Bay released him in May 2026.
The honest read is that the pick was defensible and the projection was not. Everything the board liked was real: experience, running, arm, makeup. What never improved was the exact thing flagged on draft day, because accuracy and pressure mechanics translate least often, and Atlanta asked him to fix both while starting for a team trying to win now. He is no bust in capital terms, since a third-round quarterback who starts 17 games and wins eight returns fair value, but he is the cautionary example of treating a Day 2 passer as the answer rather than the lottery ticket his price implies.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2022 NFL draft player selections table.