Is Desmond Ridder a First Round QB in the 2022 NFL Draft?
Bio
Desmond Ridder attended St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky. As a senior, Ridder passed for 1,319 yards and nine touchdowns. In addition, he led the team in rushing with 668 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. Ridder was rated as a two-star recruit by Rivals.com and a three-star recruit by 24/7 Sports. He committed to play college football at the University of Cincinnati.
College
Ridder appeared in 50 games for the Bearcats over four seasons. In those 50 contests, Ridder completed 810 of his 1,304 passes, (62.1%) for 10,239 yards and 87 touchdowns. In addition to his production in the passing game, Desmond Ridder totaled 2,180 rushing yards and scored 28 touchdowns on 501 career carries. His best season came in his 2021 season, in which he totaled 3,334 passing yards, 30 touchdowns and only 8 interceptions.
NFL Outlook
Desmond Ridder will enter the NFL with four seasons of starting experience on his resume. Throughout his career at Cincinnati, Ridder has demonstrated steady growth with each passing season. When projecting Ridder to the next level, he checks the boxes in terms of size, arm, mobility, and experience. His arm talent gives him access to the entire field and he is an exceptional runner where he showcases outstanding vision, athleticism, and the ability to break tackles. Because of his dual-threat ability, the entire playbook should be available for Ridder’s new offense.
When it comes to areas in which Ridder needs to develop in the NFL, his ball placement and decision making top the list. At times Desmond Ridder demonstrated impressive levels of accuracy only to regress and show his inability to hit his pass catchers at other times. Overall Ridder’s accuracy is best described as inconsistent. When it comes to his decision making, Ridder did well not to turn the ball over very often (28 INTs on 801 attempts), but his decisions with the ball can be overly aggressive at times, leading to forced passes. In addition, he often left the pocket to run vs. stepping up to find an open receiver. His mechanics show room for improvement as well. Improving his mechanics should improve his ball placement.
The majority of the RotoHeat analysts see Ridder as a starting NFL caliber quarterback. Ridder should excel in a run-first offense that involves the quarterback in the running game. The team projects Ridder to come off the board in the second round this year’s NFL Draft.
Thank you for reading this breakdown of Desmond Ridder. Do you think Desmond Ridder is a First Round Pick in the 2022 NFL Draft?
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