#17 Desmond Ridder - University of Cincinnati Quarterback

• 6'3"
• 212 Pounds

Career College Stats/Accolades/Notes

• 50 Games Played
• 10,239 Passing Yards
• 2,180 Rushing Yards
• 87 Passing TD - 28 INT
• 28 Rushing Touchdowns
• 2x AAC Offensive Player of the Year
• AAC Rookie of the Year
• 2x First-Team All-AAC
• 2020 Birmingham Bowl MVP

I have Desmond Ridder as my top QB because he doesn't do anything terribly. There is nothing he cannot do as a modern day NFL quarterback. He has all the physical traits and apparently he is hard working, very mature and just a good leader.

As far as I can see Desmond's only issues are inconsistency and just some mental errors. But if Desmond can improve all his skills and mesh them together like Josh Allen has for example, Desmond could really become a star.

Desmond is a long, lanky quarterback with overall, really good poise and confidence. He seems to be very competitive and just is able to get the ball to the open guy with solid consistency. He's got a bit of a longer throwing motion which actually can cause problems, but his delivery is really pretty clean and fluid.

Desmond's play style feels like a blend of Matt Ryan and Josh Allen. He leans toward Matt Ryan in terms of rather average, but very serviceable arm strength. Desmond also gets the ball out pretty quick like Matt Ryan. Ryan and Ridder also have a vaguely similar throwing motion.

Now, I haven't mentioned Ridder's running ability yet and it's in this area where Ridder looks a lot like Josh Allen. Ridder is a bit over 6'4" and when he runs it just looks like he is all legs and just runs in a sort of intimidating stomp-right-at-you type of way. I'll admit, if Ridder wants to do that type of running in the NFL, it'd be nice for him to get some more meat on those bones. Ridder is not too shifty so added muscle would really help a lot. Ridder is not insanely elusive, but he does have really legit straight line speed that shows up on tape and at the 40 yard dash where he ran a 4.52. Ridder's long legs definitely make it deceiving as to how fast he's running.

Along with Ridder's tape, Ridder's college career was simply impressive. It's only been in the past decade or so that Cincinnati college football became seriously relevant and with four years of Desmond Ridder as the team's starting QB, Cincy won A LOT of games and even sniffed a National Championship!

Ridder's plethora of high level college experience AND Ridder leading a somewhat under the radar school to great heights are just more reasons to be impressed by Ridder.

Ridder checks all the boxes, he just needs to improve and be more consistent and I mean, he hasn't seen a single snap of NFL football, so there's PLENTY of time to try and address those issues. LOL. Those are just rookie problems, essentially.

It's probably not common to have Ridder as high as he is when comparing my list to other folks. But I just have a decent gut feeling about this kid.

Josh Allen looked kind of meh his first two seasons or so. Then he exploded. Patrick Mahomes, I simply didn't see him coming. Even looking at Justin Herbert, Ridder has some of the traits these guys have. Just considering how the league is going, Ridder fits in perfect with the NFL today.

Talking won't win a team Super Bowls, but this kid does seem pretty sharp and focused.

What do you think of Ridder? With what team does he fit best?

Src