Desmond Ridder

Steelers Hosting Desmond Ridder

April 7th, 2022 at 10:59am CST by Adam La Rose

As the Steelers’ work on this year’s quarterback draft class continues, the team is turning its attention to Cincinnati alum Desmond Ridder. Pittsburgh is hosting him for one of their top-30 visits today, as noted by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer (Twitter link).

This marks the beginning of a busy stretch for Ridder; he is scheduled to meet with the Panthers and Seahawks next week, as first reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). Pittsburgh has long been touted as one of the teams most in need of a new franchise signal-caller, despite the signing of Mitch Trubisky. The team had a large presence at Ridder’s (and every other top QB’s) pro day.

The redshirt senior took Cincinnati to unprecedented heights during his time there. He helped the Bearcats become the first Group of 5 school to appear in the College Football Playoff, ultimately losing in the national semifinal. His career record of 44-6 ranks first in program history, and places him among the winningest college QBs of all time. He threw 87 touchdowns in four seasons, completing 62.1% of his passes.

Ridder has generally been ranked at least one tier below Malik Willis and Kenny Pickett in the build-up to this month’s draft. His stock may be on the rise, however, as ESPN’s Matt Miller tweets that Ridder has a chance to be a top-20 pick. Depending on how the rest of the board falls, that could place him directly into Pittsburgh’s range, since the Steelers hold the 20th selection.

Ridder isn’t the only QB Pittsburgh is meting with, not surprisingly. Rapoport adds (on Twitter) that UNC’s Sam Howell will visit on Friday. The latter is seen as a similarly-ranked prospect, and seems to have drawn attention from the Commanders and Saints among other teams. Whether the Steelers end up selecting either option or not, they will clearly have done their due diligence on the position.

Panthers To Meet With Kenny Pickett, Four Other Quarterbacks

April 5th, 2022 at 3:05pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Panthers will use next week to gather intel on the top quarterbacks from this draft class. In addition to their Malik Willis meeting, the Panthers will visit with Kenny Pickett and use four of their other top-30 prospect visits on QBs.

Pickett will join Matt Corral (Ole Miss), Sam Howell (North Carolina), Desmond Ridder (Cincinnati) and Bailey Zappe (Western Kentucky) on “30” visits, Albert Breer of SI.com tweets. These meetings will take place between Monday and Wednesday of next week in Charlotte.

Missing out on Deshaun Watson, Carolina has veteran options still. But the team has not expressed interest in Jimmy Garoppolo and is not believed to want Baker Mayfield. The team’s interest for a veteran could change, but Sam Darnold is under contract on an $18.9MM fifth-year option. An additional veteran would create an expensive QB room, and second-year GM Scott Fitterer discussed the benefits of having a rookie-deal quarterback on the payroll recently.

While Pickett — a former Matt Rhule Temple recruit who decommitted after Rhule’s Baylor departure — would require Carolina’s first-round pick, the rest of this crop is not on the top-10 radar. But the Panthers traded away their second- and third-round picks last year — in deals for Darnold and C.J. Henderson. This limits the team’s options, barring a trade-down effort in Round 1. As for the prospect of Pickett at No. 6, the Panthers were linked to the Pittsburgh passer after the Senior Bowl.

Scouts Inc. ranks Corral and Ridder as the Nos. 34 and 36 overall prospects, respectively, while slotting Howell 50th. Zappe, who played in a pass-crazed system in his only Division I season and broke Joe Burrow‘s touchdown pass record by compiling 62 for the Hilltoppers, profiles as a Day 3 prospect, ranking 139th.

Panthers’ Plans At Quarterback

March 26th, 2022 at 9:52pm CST by Ely Allen

After losing out on the Deshaun Watson-sweepstakes, the Panthers have maintained that they still intend to add another quarterback to the roster, according to Nick Shook of NFL.com. In a press conference covered by Shook and Joseph Person of The Athletic, general manager Scott Fitterer laid out the team’s plans moving forward.

Answering the obvious question, quarterbacks Sam Darnold and P.J. Walker are still under contract and will be afforded every opportunity to earn the starting job moving forward. The issue there lies in the fact that they’ve already been given such an opportunity and the question of future quarterback is still being asked as a result. Fitterer did inform reporters that head coach Matt Rhule had talked with a free agent signing from last year, Cam Newton. On the matter, Fitterer said, “The thing with Cam, it’s gotta be a fit for us and it’s gotta be a fit for him, just as well. He’s looking for a certain opportunity. The door’s still open for us.”

The free agent quarterback market really cleared out after Watson’s trade to Cleveland. There are still some NFL-experienced options in the trade market, though. As of now, Fitterer asserts that they haven’t heard from San Francisco or Cleveland about Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield. Since phones tend to have the ability to both send AND receive calls, it stands to reason that the Panthers not reaching out to initiate conversations over the available quarterbacks is a reflection of their level of interest. Still, Fitterer claims that they are open to receiving calls from the 49ers or Browns. They do have the luxury of waiting, possibly even until after the Draft, as there doesn’t seem to be any urgent interest in Garoppolo or Mayfield.

The most likely path, and the one most desired by Fitterer, is through the 2022 NFL Draft. Rhule and Fitterer were in attendance for Kenny Pickett’s pro day workout at Pitt and Malik Willis’ workout at Liberty. Rhule went to Mississippi’s pro day to watch Matt Corral. The only reason they didn’t go the Cincinnati to watch Desmond Ridder is because they already worked extensively with the Bearcat quarterback at the Senior Bowl and Combine. They still sent a scout and two personnel executives, though.

Suffice it to say that the Panthers have made it extremely clear that they are taking a good look at this year’s quarterback class. With the sixth pick in the first round of the Draft, Carolina could very likely take a quarterback and very well may the first team to do so, giving them their pick of the litter.

Fitterer preached a philosophy of building a team around a young quarterback on a reasonably low contract, like the Seahawks did with Russell Wilson during Fitterer’s tenure in Seattle. The only issue with this philosophy is that Rhule’s seat is getting hotter with each loss. He may not feel he has the leash to develop a young quarterback surrounded by veterans. If Rhule feels like he’s in a win-now scenario, he may push for the team to trade for one of the more proven assets like Garoppolo or Mayfield.

The route that ends up getting taken in Carolina will likely say a lot about the alignment of Rhule and Fitterer, who arrived one year after the head coach. If the team makes a move to trade for a league veteran, Fitterer likely wants to give Rhule the tools to keep his job. If the teams sits pat and waits until the Draft to address the position, it could be assumed that Fitterer is willing to let Rhule test his luck in order to build a team around his own philosophy.

Cinci’s Desmond Ridder Declares For Draft

January 8th, 2022 at 8:11pm CST by Ely Allen

Quarterback Desmond Ridder said goodbye to his home of the past 5 years with a video posted to his Twitter account last night. While it seems obvious that a red-shirt senior is headed to the 2022 NFL Draft, because of the COVID-shortened season, Ridder had the option to return for a sixth year.

In an early mock draft, ESPN’s Todd McShay had Ridder as the fourth quarterback off the board and the 19th overall pick in the first round. The Kentucky native isn’t considered a consensus first-round pick, but he is consistently ranked as one of the 6 quarterbacks in the top-tier with Kenny Pickett (Pittsburgh), Matt Corral (Mississippi), Sam Howell (North Carolina), Malik Willis (Liberty), and Carson Strong (Nevada).

As a three-star recruit out of St. Xavier in Louisville, Ridder chose Cincinnati over Eastern Kentucky and went on to amass a starting record for the Bearcats of 44-6. Ridder and his teammates did what most assumed was impossible when they became the first Group of 5 program to qualify for the 2022 College Football Playoff.

Ridder and cornerback Ahmad Gardner are striving to become the first Bearcats taken in the first round of the NFL Draft since defensive lineman Bob Bell was taken 21st overall in 1971. Regardless, Ridder has certainly made a name for himself as the University of Cincinnati’s winningest quarterback of all time, ranking 3rd overall in the statistic for all college football with his 44 wins trailing only Boise State’s Kellen Moore (50) and Texas’s Colt McCoy (45).

Top QB Prospects In 2022 NFL Draft

December 19th, 2021 at 11:09pm CST by Ely Allen

Every team in the NFL came into the 2021-22 season with a plan at quarterback. Some of those plans have gone awry and some of those plans have proven unsuccessful. The Texans, Football Team, and Saints have seen injuries dismantle their plans for Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Jameis Winston, respectively. The Giants, Panthers, and Lions hoped for promising seasons behind youngsters Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, and Jared Goff, respectively, but a lack of success has left them disappointed. The Broncos might not see Teddy Bridgewater return after a one-year deal. And teams like the Falcons and Steelers have aging veterans in Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger, respectively, that may be starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Any of these teams may stick it out and see their plans through, and any teams that seem set at the quarterback position may decide that some young talent may improve their franchise. Well, there’s only one place to go for young football talent, and that leads us to the pool of top quarterback prospects presumed to be available in the 2022 NFL Draft.

When you look at the list of college quarterbacks preparing to enter the NFL next season, you’ll notice something a little different from years past. There is no Trevor Lawrence or Joe Burrow or Kyler Murray or Baker Mayfield. That is to say there is no unanimous top quarterback prospect with star power that led their team to the College Football Playoffs. Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder achieved what was seemingly impossible: guiding a Group of 5 school into the College Football Playoffs, but most GMs in the NFL do not see him as a first-round pick.

Instead, NFL GMs and evaluators seem to have narrowed it down to two quarterback prospects most likely to be taken on day one of the NFL Draft: Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett and Ole Miss’s Matt Corral.

Pickett spent most of his freshman season in 2017 as a backup with his first start coming against the visiting Miami Hurricanes who were ranked second in the country by the College Football Playoff Committee going into the last week of the regular season. Pickett introduced himself to the college football world by leading the 4-7 Panthers to a huge upset over the Hurricanes. Pickett took over the starting job and never looked back. The next couple of years were nothing to brag about as he threw 13 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in both his junior and his senior seasons. But COVID-19 granted him a fifth year of eligibility and he made sure to take advantage. In his final year, Pickett completed 67.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards, throwing 42 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. Pickett led the Panthers to their first ever ACC Championship and finished third in Heisman voting.

Corral spent his freshman season backing up current Washington practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta’amu and took a redshirt after only appearing in four games. He took over the next year as the Ole Miss starting quarterback and led the team to a 4-8 finish completing 59.0% of his passes for 1,362 yards and throwing 6 touchdowns to 3 interceptions as a redshirt-freshman. Corral developed over the next two years, completing 69.5% of his passes for a combined 6,670 yards and throwing 49 touchdowns to 18 interceptions over his redshirt-sophomore and -junior seasons. The intrigue with Corral comes from what he adds on the ground. Over those final two seasons, Corral added 1,103 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing the ball. It should be noted the Corral hasn’t technically announced his intentions to enter the NFL Draft, but he posted an announcement calling Ole Miss’s matchup against Vanderbilt his “final game” at the Rebel’s home stadium, a strong indication of his intentions.

While those two are widely considered the most likely quarterbacks to go in the first round, it is also a fairly popular opinion that three quarterbacks could be taken on day one of the Draft. Who that third quarterback will be is up to a lot of speculation.

Two of the more common names to pop up in that conversation are Nevada’s Carson Strong and Liberty’s Malik Willis. Strong had a breakout performance in the COVID-shortened season and built off of that success in his redshirt-junior year completing 70.2% of his passes for 4,186 yards and tossing 36 touchdowns and 8 interceptions in 2021. Willis transferred from Auburn to Liberty for the 2020 season and led the Flames to a 10-1 season and a final ranking of 17th in the AP poll in Liberty’s third season in the FBS. Like Corral, Willis brings a lot to the table with his legs as well as his arms. In two years with the Flames, Willis threw for 44 touchdowns and ran for 25 more. He led quarterbacks in rushing yards in 2020 and finished third in that same category this year.

One of the two quarterbacks who finished with more rushing yards than Willis this season, is North Carolina’s Sam Howell. Before the 2021 season was played, Howell saw his name frequently in the top 5 of “way-too-soon” mock drafts. Many expected, with Howell as a third-year starter, that the Tar Heels would stake their claim at the top of the ACC, but a down year for the team hurt Howell’s draft stock. While Howell saw his passing numbers drop a bit from past seasons, he found a new talent for rushing the ball piling up 825 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground.

The last name that seems to find its way into the conversations is Desmond Ridder. Yes, I said that most GMs don’t see Ridder as a first-round pick, but most doesn’t mean all. Ridder has produced every season as a four-year starter saving his best year for last. And while he didn’t run the ball quite as much this year, he’s shown his abilities in past years racking up 650 yards in 2019 and 12 rushing touchdowns in 2020. Perhaps most importantly, Ridder knows how to win, achieving a 44-6 record in four years as a Bearcat, with the possibility of adding two more wins to that total.

So buckle up for an intriguing leadup to the 2022 NFL Draft. With so many differing opinions and valuations, chaos is sure to ensue as teams try to gauge just how long they can wait for their favorite quarterback prospect. The headline names may not be sexy and the certainty of teams’ decisions won’t resemble what we saw in 2012 when Indianapolis and Washington informed Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III of their decisions days before the Draft, but that shouldn’t make April 28, 2022, any less entertaining!