The Atlanta Falcons did the obvious today and cut Marcus Mariota and this was no surprise from most Falcons fans. The Falcons save money and don’t have to waste time with a player is average at best as a starting QB in the NFL. The real question is now that we have seen how this season worked out with Mariota as the starter is it safe to say the Falcons made a huge mistake with starting Mariota in the first place? Let’s examine that question.
In the preseason (yea I know it’s only preseason) no player showed they was clearly better than the other between ridder or Mariota. Conventional thinking would say if there’s no huge difference of play between the rookie or the 7 year vet that you play the rookie if this was a rebuild season and both are new to the team! We heard the organization owner say he wouldn’t call it a rebuild, but he would say a retooling of the team! That sounds like rebuild too me, but as an owner you can’t tell fans who are defaulting on psl and season tickets loans that they are in a rebuild season! We all understand that aspect of the business side of football.
As an organization you have what you tell the public and what your organization tells themselves when evaluating this roster of players. Teams often tell little white lies to the fans to keep those dollars flowing, but if they lie to themselves it leads to losing on the football field if they cannot properly evaluate who gives them the best chance to win football games or is development of the roster more important of winning. This is where I feel my Falcons fumbled the ball this season.
The fact that Mariota wasn’t clearly better than Ridder during the preseason games should have been a red flag on starting Mariota. Just because you didn’t publicly say this was a rebuilding season your actions proved otherwise! Trading matt Ryan and taking in all of that salary cap was the biggest red flag that showed me this was a rebuilding season! If those two things are true you should have used the entire season to evaluate Desmond Ridder if there wasn’t a clear cut winner of the QB job in the pre season. Arthur Smith having loyalty to Mariota or possibly promising Mariota the starting job prior to the season starting was a huge mistake.
I think everyone to a man/women can agree that we stuck with Mariota too long because we was chasing a division lead in the sorriest division in nfl history with the sorriest qb in the division! That was fools gold and now we have a QB that only had 4 games under his belt coming into this season with no other qb to challenge him for the job. With that little bit of experience as a starting NFL qb is the main reason why the rumors of the Atlanta Falcons trading for Lamar Jackson are running rampant throughout the Falcons fandom and the national media! It’s also the reason that the national media have been reporting the Falcons as one of the teams that will be looking to move up in the draft to get one of these top qb prospects in this year draft! (Young or stroud)
We could have had a better answer about Ridder as our future starting QB if he started the entire season! The development and evaluation of Desmond Ridder should have been this organization main priority this season with the two potential franchise changing QB in the draft! We would have a better sense in what direction the Atlanta Falcons are going to move towards with the most important position in the NFL (QB) if Ridder started the entire season. I’ve rambled for a long time and thank you for reading our blogs! Please leave a comment below on the subject if the falcons wasted Ridder rookie season by playing Mariota. Thank you and have a blessed day.
1 comment
Says WB just wanted to let you know