MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder is squarely in the middle of the starting quarterback spectrum. During two days of joint practices with the Dolphins, Ridder was solid, not spectacular. He won't make the Joint Practice Pro Bowl. But he knows what he's doing, the coaches have confidence in him, and he's good enough to help make his pass-catching weapons effective.
That's good news for the Fantasy heroes we're counting on -- Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts -- all of whom are tied to Ridder. If he succeeds, they thrive; if he struggles, they're less likely to reach their potential.
On Tuesday, Ridder hit his rookie RB, who was lined up as a receiver, in 11-on-11 drills for a short-area touchdown. On Wednesday he threw a dart maybe a tad behind tight end John FitzPatrick for another score, then made a fantastic reads on separate plays: One connection with Mack Hollins on a broken play when he moved out of the pocket, then again when he found a second-read tight-end target open in the middle of the field. Both were first-down gains.
"Taking what they give me," Ridder told CBS Sports when asked what he's improved on the most this offseason. "I feel like I've been seeing it well, I'm very comfortable with our offense, so it's really about just going out there and not trying to force anything, not trying to make one play a big play but just try to make it play by play."
Falcons coach Arthur Smith was more direct with Ridder's improvements.
"I think his decision-making has been pretty damn good, I think his technique's certainly improving, and that's the name of the game," said Smith.
So while Fantasy managers may not consider Ridder for their teams (not their one-QB teams, anyway), know that Fantasy managers can still trust him in other important ways.
Bijan is for real, but he's not alone
Robinson's first day seemed better than his second, but he was devoid of jaw-dropping plays on both. Everything you may have read about him from his days at Texas were on display -- his quick change of direction, his burst, his hands -- but how he was deployed by the Falcons was very interesting. He lined up wide a bunch as a receiver and also was their motion man on several occasions, including once in a 7-on-7 drill when he left the backfield and was uncovered -- and focused -- for a touchdown to the front-right pylon.
Thing is, when he was lined up wide or in motion before the snap, it was often with a teammate at running back. It suggests Robinson won't be anywhere close to a traditional NFL rusher in this iteration of the Falcons offense. And he's cool with that.
"They want me to be as comfortable as possible, so they don't want to take nothing away or try to add something that's drastic," Robinson said when asked if the coaches have asked him to learn anything new. "I've got to learn a lot of different positions now, which is awesome, I get to maximize my ability."
Fantasy managers should love this. The more a player can do, the more ways he can touch the ball and make a difference in a game.
Just know that Robinson won't get every carry and every running back rep. For instance, Robinson worked with the second-team offense during the two-minute drill. No one might believe that will be the case by the time Week 1 comes around, but for now he's not regularly on the field with the hurry-up offense. Despite this, he's still more than worthy of being a first-round Fantasy pick, especially in PPR leagues since there's a chance he runs as many as 300 routes, something only 11 running backs did in 2022.
"It's a huge advantage," Ridder said of utilizing his running backs in the passing game. "A lot of times you look at man coverage and your wideouts are with DBs, your tight ends are with safeties or corners and it leaves you on your running backs, and so your matchup's between a running back and a linebacker, or if they blitz the linebacker and it ends up being a D-end, God forbid Bijan be on a D-end because it might be a bad day (for them). But those are the matchups that we look for."
The lowdown on Pitts and London
There's less enthusiasm for London and Pitts. Physically, both are skyscrapers with Pitts having more mass than London. But neither made a bunch of big plays during the two practices -- for different reasons.
Pitts continues to work his way back from offseason knee surgery. He participated in just a fraction of the Falcons' passing downs on Wednesday. If there was concern that his snaps would be limited going into the early portion of the season, Fantasy managers would get nervous. But it doesn't sound like that's happening.
"Next week we'll put a little more on him as we ramp him up," Smith said. "There's some other things we need to see, we've kept him out of certain things. Done a lot more in the passing game as he should ... we'll push him a little bit more next week."
Pitts remains a top-five Fantasy tight end who should see good volume and more catchable passes in the short and intermediate area. Think Round 5 on him. He averaged 5.9 targets per game last year and should see a modest increase this year.
London can't blame his lack of highlights on limited playing time because he ran a lot of routes against Miami. It seemed like everybody for Atlanta made at least one or two great plays, but not London. Can't say for sure it was because he didn't run as many downfield routes as Mack Hollins or KhaDarel Hodge did, or if he was locked up by Miami cornerback Xavien Howard, but it was strange to look back at my notes and not see London all over the place. Between 7-on-7s and team drills, I counted two targets for London with one tipped at the line of scrimmage.
A quick reminder: In his last four games of 2022, all with Ridder and all with Pitts sidelined, London saw a target on 33% of his routes and averaged 9.0 targets and 13.6 PPR points per game. In 10 games with Pitts and with Marcus Mariota at quarterback, he saw a target on 24.2% of his routes and averaged 5.8 targets and 9.6 PPR points per game.
London's quiet joint practices shouldn't be construed as some sort of proof that he won't be productive, but the fear is that he won't emerge as a high-ADOT big-play threat. Working with a tall downfield speedster like Mack Hollins doesn't help; catching passes from a quarterback who just might not be great enough to help him on tight-window or deep throws doesn't help. One look at London and it's obvious he's physically gifted, but he's at risk of being second (if not third if Robinson takes off) on the Falcons in targets without a bunch of deep throws. I'd rather draft Pitts in that same Round 5 range.