This has been a weird year for the Falcons. David Bell Jersey They were expected to sit near the bottom of the NFC South standings but instead have had a mini-resurgence. Atlanta has climbed to second in the division with a 4-5 record behind the Buccaneers only by way of head-to-head tiebreaker.With a playoff spot in sight, coach Arthur Smith has opted to stay with experience over youthful exuberance at quarterback, with veteran Marcus Mariota starting at center over rookie Desmond RidderFiguring out when to hand the reins to a young QB is always a tough balance. Calls for Ridder have grown louder in recent weeks, with many hoping that a change in QB could help unlock Drake London and Kyle Pitts as downfield targets.MORE:The Sporting News looks at how Mariota and Ridder compare:It's easy to fall into one of two camps: stick with Mariota or hand the offense to Ridder.Mariota's limitations as a pa ser are clear. He's not a great deep thrower something that was exposed in a le s-than-stellar showing against the Chargers in Week 9. Through the opening nine weeks of the season, Atlanta ranks 30th in the league in pa sing attempts and pa sing yards.No player has suffered more as a result than Pitts. Despite scoring just one touchdown as a rookie, he was one of the league's most exciting tight ends because Chad Thomas Jersey of his vertical receiving skills. He ended the year with 1,026 receiving yards, becoming just the second rookie tight end to net 1,000 (Hall of Famer Mike Ditka was the first).MORE: Pitts is lagging far behind his 2021 pace this year, though. He has just 285 yards through eight games and has been held to 30 yards or fewer on five different occasions.Much of that is due to Mariota not having confidence in his arm strength, something he admitted during a pre s conference this week."First and foremost, I can do a better job of giving Kyle more opportunities with Jordan Akins Jersey the ball," Mariota said. "I think sometimes I've been a little too safe, a little too conservative where I'm putting the football, so giving him a chance to go get it, I think thatll help some of his target numbers."MORE:For Atlanta to move forward, it will need to get Pitts and Drake London another talented pa s-catcher who hasn't made much of an impact in recent Maurice Hurst Ii Jersey weeks involved in the offense. If Mariota can't do that, then perhaps Ridder will.Ridder's arm caught the attention of many analysts last summer, including ESPN's Dan Orlovsky.Desmond Ridder has a chance to be a really good pro shocking thing is his arm is 20% stronger than in college, he was throwing the snot out of the ball. likes the rookie QB in Atlanta Ro s Tucker Podcast (@Ro sTuckerPod) And although it was a small sample size, Ridder offered a glimpse into his arm talent during the preseason.Desmond Ridder completed +13.5% of his pa ses over expected and generated +8.0 pa sing EPA in the Falcons second preseason game.Ridder leads all rookie QBs in pa sing EPA by volume (+10.7) and efficiency (+0.31 per dropback) through two weeks of the preseason. Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) He's still far from a finished product, of course. Ridder struggled during his last preseason game, to sing two interceptions. But with his lively arm, Brandon Bouyer-randle Jersey good speed (he ran a 4.52 40-yard dash at the Combine) and hulking frame (6-4, 207 pounds), the appeal is there.Atlanta has been able to win in spite of Mariota's deficiencies. But if the Falcons want to get the most out of London and Pitts, as well as supplement their impre sive run game (which ranks fourth in the league in total yards), then they should look to get Ridder on the field. Don't be surprised if that happens sooner rather than later.