Who’s the Quarterback?
The Atlanta Falcons will be heading up I-75 to play the Tennessee Titans this Sunday. That’s a Fact. What is not a known fact right now is who will be throwing the ball for the Titans.
The team’s starting quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, is injured due to an ankle injury during the Ravens game on week 6. According to CBS Sports, the Titans could go with both Malik WIllis and Will Levis, both rookies, to start for Sunday’s game. This would be Levis’ first start in the NFL. He was the 33rd overall pick in the 2023 draft. Earlier, there was speculation that Levis would be the sole starter, but both may be given that dual duty for strategic reasons.
For his part, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith knows the team has to be ready to play whoever the Titan’s passer will be.
“You know you got to have a plan for the backup quarterback,” coach Smith said at a press conference this morning. “It’s the way it goes, so I promise you this they will be ready to go and if we don’t play our best game and we’re not prepared we’ll get embarrassed.”
Quarterback Desmond Ridder also says the team needs to be ready to play, regardless of the opponent’s eventual QB.
“They’ve had a bye and really two weeks to prepare for this game so you know they’re going to come in healthy, juiced up, and ready to go,” said Ridder. “We got to go in there [with] the mentality just to outwork them.”
Ridder: “I’m just trying… to get better.”
Ridder has been in the hot seat for the past few weeks for playing less than error-free football that has cost or nearly cost the Falcons wins. He told the press that he is working to get better and is making protecting the football and avoiding turnovers a priority.
“I’m just trying to show up to work every single day to get better,” he said. “Obviously there’s mistakes that have been made, those turnovers over the past couple of weeks, obviously that’s something that you know you got to clean up, got to be better, got to protect the football”
NFL is Interested in the Robinson incident.
It has been reported that the NFL is looking into the much-reported incident involving Bijan Robinson and his illness that kept him out of most of the game Sunday. The league is interested as to why the Falcons did not report the illness, a headache Robinson said was severe enough to keep him out of the majority of the game. The issue was not indicated on the team’s injury report Sunday.
Smith was in no mood to make much comment on the issue.
[“There’s] nothing there,” he said. “Haven’t given one second of thought about it. ”
About the Falcons’ newest roster addition
The Falcons announced the addition of defensive lineman LaCale London, who comes to the Falcons from the XFL. “It’s a credit to him,” he said. “He’s playing good football for us. We can provide an opportunity, doesn’t matter how you got in this building, you get an opportunity.”
The team also signed linebacker Donavan Mutin to the practice squad, and defensive lineman Eli Ankou has been released, according to the Falcons.
