Matt Schaub and Desmond Ridder are in very different stages of their lives. Schaub is a 40-year-old retired quarterback with a 16-year NFL career in the books, while Ridder is a rookie just starting his career. Despite that, and despite their very different skillsets, Schaub is a natural player to look to when you’re trying to project how Ridder might fare in the NFL.
Schaub may not be the best case scenario for Ridder—that’d be fellow third rounder Russell Wilson, probably—but he is an example of a third round pick at the position panning out. He was not given the opportunity to step in to a starting job as early as Ridder might be—Michael Vick was in the prime of his career, after all—but Schaub wound up fetching the Falcons significant draft capital.