The Atlanta Falcons had a franchise quarterback for well over a decade, and the end of those particular eras are never very graceful. Over the past three seasons, the Falcons have moved on from a legend in Matt Ryan and entertained several avenues to replace him. The important takeaway right now is that none of those have really worked out, and they’re in the midst of wrestling with where to go next.
There’s a longer article about the quarterback situation to come, but for today, let’s stick with where we are now. The Falcons did not have to come into this year betting everything on Desmond Ridder with only Taylor Heinicke as a fallback plan, but they did, with an almost surreal amount of confidence in one or both of those players producing at a high enough level for this offense to hum.