Just a week ago, the Atlanta Falcons decided to bench starting QB Marcus Mariota in favor of rookie Desmond Ridder. And now, Mariota is heading to the IR with a knee injury. Since the team had a bye in Week 14, the first-year signal-caller has had more time than usual to prepare for his NFL debut. Ahead of Sunday's tilt with the New Orleans Saints, he sounded nothing but confident, crediting the Falcons for preparing him for this moment all year long.

“I’m prepared for this,” Ridder said, via the team’s website. “This is what they’ve been preparing me for. They didn’t want to baby me. . . . It means going about the game plan how a 12-year vet, an eight-year vet, whatever it may be, would. Not putting on a wristband — making me memorize every single play call, all the ins and outs, all the checks, all the cadence, just taking it like I’ve been in the league for eight years.”

For 13 weeks, Desmond Ridder has been an observer and clearly, he's used this time to learn from a distance. The youngster is ready to roll. The Falcons don't plan to change their offense much and hope that Ridder could even add more of a boost to their attack. At 5-8, time is running out for Atlanta to turn things around and Week 15 will certainly not be easy, despite New Orleans having a 4-9 record. They're always a tough out.

Ridder was taken in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Falcons. It'll be interesting to see how he fares come Sunday.