Desmond Ridder played QB for the Cincinnati Bearcats for 4 seasons. He led them to a birth in the college football playoffs in the Cotton Bowl against Alabama. As the Quarterback for a top college football team, he is bound to get NFL attention. Could Desmond Ridder be a franchise QB in the NFL? Lets hop into his scouting report to find out.
Strengths: Desmond Ridder is a proven winner who has led the Cincinnati Bearcats to unprecedented success for a Group of 5 school. Ridder was the quarterback for the Bearcats for 4 years, starting 48 games. Each year, he improved the Bearcats team as a whole, while he also showed improvement. In his final season of 2021 he led the Bearcats to a 13-1 record, only losing to a much more talented Alabama team in the College Football Playoffs. Ridder was by all accounts the leader of that Cincinnati team. He entered college football as a 2-3 star recruit depending on the scouting service, and made his team a top 4 team in the country; Ridder clearly has the confidence that a franchise Quarterback needs. He has great toughness- he battled through an injury in 2019, and never gave up on plays. He can take hits and get right back up and jump right into the next play. Ridder reportedly has a great work ethic and is all about football, which are traits that scouts and coaches love, especially regarding quarterbacks. Ridder has good height for the position, standing at 6’4, the prototypical size for a starting QB. Ridder displays above average arm strength, and on occasion shows the ability to launch the ball down the field. Ridder has good athleticism and quickness for the position, as can be seen by his 4.52 40-yard dash. He shows the ability to scramble when standing back in the pocket and tuck the ball and run when needed. He shows elusiveness as a runner and can make tacklers miss. Ridder shows the ability to progress through his reads. He has a high football IQ and reportedly has done very well in pre-draft interviews.
Weaknesses: While Desmond Ridder has many of the intangibles needed to be a successful Quarterback at the NFL level, he has a ways to go in terms of the tangibles. The most glaring issue for Desmond Ridder in my opinion is his inconsistent accuracy. He has some passes that are impressive, even far down the field, but too often do his passes sail on all levels of the field. His deep ball accuracy is wildly inconsistent, and those passes can often be too short- showing his above average- but not elite- arm strength. Intermediate routes are more of the same, the ball can sail on crossing routes, and can be thrown a little late into tight windows. The most concerning part of Ridder’s accuracy are some of his throws on short routes. There are simple throws out to RBs in the flats that he can throw over their head. Ridder’s lack of accuracy is partly due to his poor mechanics that will need quite a bit of refinement and coaching to get up to par. Ridder shows more accuracy concerns while throwing the ball on the run. Although he has athleticism, I don’t think he is an elite athlete, and could be better as a runner if his athleticism is going to be a big part of his game. Ridder can tend to telegraph some of his throws, which can allow DBs to jump some routes. Ridder has too many batted passes, partially because of a long wind-up. His worst game of the season was against Alabama in the college football playoffs. I understand that Alabama was easily the best team they played all season and Alabama is full of NFL talent, which is an excuse made for his poor play, but he will be playing against teams full of NFL talent in the NFL.
Bottom Line: I am not as high on Desmond Ridder as other scouts are. He clearly has the intangibles needed to be a starting QB in the NFL, but his weaknesses seem too hard to ignore. I understand that other QBs like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson had big issues coming out of college, and they have vastly improved. I would argue that Ridder does not have the elite traits that Allen or Jackson had; arm talent and rushing ability respectively. Sure, Ridder has the work ethic and the potential to fix all of his issues, but even if he does fix all of those issues, I don’t think he has the elite set of skills to be an elite QB at the next level. Ridder clearly had the mentality to be a great leader. I think Ridder’s ceiling is a mid-end starting QB, but I think he does have a low floor.
Grade: 3.5
