DECEMBER 20: If the Falcons are to make a late run to the playoffs, Heinicke will be leading the way. Smith said the team will go with the former Washington starter the rest of the way. When Smith benched Ridder the first time, he kept the door open for a return. While the Falcons reinstalled Ridder as their starter, it appears the second-year passer — anointed as the starter back in March — is not in the team’s plans to close out this season. With Smith uncertain to be retained for 2024, plenty rides on Heinicke.
DECEMBER 19: In the aftermath of the Falcons’ loss on Sunday, head coach Arthur Smith said a quarterback change was being contemplated. After going back to Desmond Ridder, Atlanta is now set to hand the reins to Taylor Heinicke once again. 
The latter will get the start in Week 16, Josh Kendall and Jeff Schultz of The Athletic report (subscription required). That comes as no surprise after Smith’s remarks left the door open to Heinicke being reinstalled as the No. 1 for at least the time being. Ridder was given the starting role back after the Falcons’ bye week, and the team intended for that decision to apply through the remainder of the campaign.
However, the 2022 third-rounder has not improved as hoped during his second stint as a starter. Ridder has committed 16 turnovers this season, including six in the red zone. As a result, Atlanta sits at 6-8 on the year and is in danger of missing out on the postseason. A late switch back to Heinicke could provide more stability under center down the stretch.
After putting Ridder atop the depth chart for the final four games of his rookie season, the Falcons gave him a vote of confidence. The decision to sign Heinicke to a two-year, $14MM deal in the offseason was aimed at providing experienced depth, although the starter’s job was certainly not set in stone entering the season. With Ridder struggling to make the Year 2 jump, Heinicke earned a pair of starts midway through the season after replacing Ridder at halftime the game before.
In his time at the helm (which was cut short by a hamstring injury), Heinicke posted a passer rating of 84.2, the second-lowest of his career. The former Commanders starter committed only one turnover in that span, however, so he could provide a higher floor than Ridder against the Colts this week. Fighting for both the top spot in the NFC South as well as a wild-card spot, the Falcons will need a rebound from last week’s poor offensive showing to keep their postseason chances alive.
The team faces the possibility of missing the playoffs for a third straight season under head coach Arthur Smith. In spite of that, the latest reporting on the matter points to Atlanta retaining him for next season. As The Athletic report notes, however, Smith’s job security may become dependent on a plan to acquire a new starter under center despite both Ridder and Heinicke being on the books beyond 2023. Neither passer has done enough to lay claim to a permanent No. 1 role to date, but Heinicke will get another opportunity to do so this Sunday.
Shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic
Coaches who do this aren’t fit to be HC’s. Flip-flopping just shows how incompetent you are. Falcons aren’t a good team, just stick with one QB and accept the losses, it’ll get you a better QB in the draft anyway.
The Falcons are playing one of the NFL’s easiest schedules – and still stink.
Steelers say ‘hold my beer’
Who remembers when 99% of this site told me the Falcons would be wasting money to go after Lamar? Ouch. Good thing none of you idiots are GMs.
Yahoo agrees with you in their power rankings.
link to sports.yahoo.com
Why would they have placed themselves right back into salary cap hell by signing an injury prone running qb?
Injury prone running QB who hasn’t been hurt all year and is a top 3 MVP candidate leading a top AFC team?
Get a brain.
But will play 50% of the time through length of the contract. Falcons already played that game with Julio butt wipe.
Irrelevant. Jackson was not going to sign with Atlanta. He wanted to win right away and the Falcons were not ready. His numbers would not look anywhere near as good in this Atlanta offense either. The Falcons D would have been even worse than last year given attrition and not spending any cap space in free agency.
Maybe not a total waste of money, and maybe they get to the playoffs, but it would take more than Lamar to just win the NFC. They need to slow build this team and not try patch jobs.
Wasn’t saying it was relevant to this post. Just saying all of you were wrong and Lamar would fix this trash offense in a heartbeat. 5 times they’ve been held under 20 points. That doesn’t happen with Lamar….
Ugh
This is the still fallout from the cap nonsense from the Ryan days. Falcons had to let so many good defensive players walk and were always just good enough to not get game changers on either side of the ball. To compensate, they had to run out a rookie scale QB and spend in free agency for defenders other teams couldn’t re-sign because they were in cap situation similar to Atlanta’s from a couple of years ago.
Most of the free agent signings have been as expected or better. The problem just comes with the fact that Ridder has been far worse than expected. I would blame part of that on Smith’s offense where the QB is still forced to be under center most of the time (which almost no QB in college does any longer). A good coach builds his scheme to fit his talent, while also expecting the talent to mold into his scheme. A bad coach is inflexible.
I like Smith’s approach to the game, but it’s obvious to anyone watching that Ridder cannot function under center. It’s not like the Falcons are running the ball effectively in this approach either. Change it up coach.
Trade for Fields this offseason right?
Might be their best shot.
Using Ridder as an escape goat is classic I’m not saying Ridder is a franchise QB but he did the same game plan vs the cardinals and the same result happen. You blaming QBs for your poor play calling is why we need a real HC he keeps calling the same plays. We on the 30 yard line with 4 mins to and you call a pass play when we can run the ball and drain the clock and kick the FG and make it 10-6 and trust our defense who has the 2nd best red zone defense vs a team who has 32 pass offense. And why didn’t you call pass plays on a team who is 31st in pass defense and when we did he got to the 50 yard line. FIRE SMITH YESTERDAY