No QB Controversy Here: Falcons Name Week 1 Starter
Any ideas of the Atlanta Falcons holding a quarterback battle were squashed after the first day of training camp.
Quarterback coach Charles London declared Marcus Mariota the starter over rookie Desmond Ridder in a press conference following Wednesday's practice.
"Obviously, we've got a plan for each of them. Marcus is the starter," said Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London, via The Athletic. "That's how we're going into this thing."
The move doesn't come as a huge surprise considering Mariota saw majority of the first-team reps and he has seven years of NFL experience on Ridder.
Mariota, 28, has had quite the rollercoaster of an NFL career. Entering the league as a Heisman Trophy winner and the 2015 draft's No. 2 overall selection, he was a day one starter in the league.
After trudging through injuries and spurts of inconsistent play with the Tennessee Titans, Mariota was benched in 2019, his fifth season in the league. He spent the last two seasons as Derek Carr's backup with the Las Vegas Raiders.
In Atlanta, Mariota gets to reunite with Smith, who was Tennessee's offensive coordinator in the fateful 2019 season. While things didn't work out too well last time for Mariota, he's off to a strong start with the Falcons, as Smith dubbed him (and Ridder) among the team's most impressive players at OTAs.
The biggest question Mariota must answer in camp is whether he's progressed since his time in Tennessee. Prior to his benching, Mariota was never given a chance to sit back and learn in the NFL, other than when he was out due to injury. The Raiders provided him with that opportunity, and he's now been given a rare (among quarterbacks) second chance to prove he's a starting-caliber signal caller.
