The revenge of plunderers Desmond Ridder will rest on the falcons

There have been few storylines surrounding the Las Vegas Raiders this season as the potential of recently signed quarterback Desmond Ridder faces his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, on Monday Night Football.

Ridder is looking forward to the confrontation with his former team.

“Whether I play or not, whenever that decision is made, as I’ve said every week, I’m excited and blessed to have the opportunity to go out and get on the field. and playing what I love, the game I grew up with, the game I put a lot of time, work, sweat and tears into. So whether it’s against the Falcons, it doesn’t matter who it is against is I get to go out and show my talents, it’s an exciting one time.”

There has been some discussion about who will start at quarterback for the Raiders this week Aidan O’Connell’s knee injury was not as serious as initially thought. However, O’Connell has missed several days of training this week, and at 2-11 it may not be worth risking his long-term health.

Ridder said this doesn’t change how he plans to prepare for Monday night.

“No, nothing changes,” said Ridder. “As a backup, like I said, you have to prepare as if you were the starter. You have to prepare as if, like I said, it could be any game. It could be the first game, it could be the 70th game. So for me, my way of thinking doesn’t change. I work the same way I do Monday through Sunday.”

He noted that he doesn’t always get many practice reps as a backup, but that wasn’t an issue this week when O’Connell didn’t practice.

“That’s not how it works sometimes in this league,” Ridder said. “Sometimes as a backup you only get a few reps during the week. You have to get mental reps, and you have to get a lot of reps when you’re not on the field. And so for me it’s about getting as many mental reps as possible, and then translate that to the field. But obviously with preparation for your guys’ jobs it would be a lot easier to go out there and practice But before you do anything I said, as a backup, our job is to to be able to go outside prepared for any situation to be.”

It should be noted how unlikely it was that Ridder would face his old team this season, let alone as a starter. After starting 13 games for the Falcons last season and four games the previous season, Ridder was on the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad, far from a starting quarterback in the league.

Multiple low probability events had to occur for Ridder to find himself in this position. Although he said all the right things this week, Ridder’s departure from the Falcons was unceremonious.

He now gets to stick it out with his old team, which is clinging to their last hope of making the postseason. If Ridder could possibly be the one to end the Falcons’ playoff hopes months after they kicked him to the curb, that would be poetic.

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