The Atlanta Falcons enter their bye week following a disappointing 25-23 to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. 

The game started with Taylor Heinicke under center and it ended with Desmond Ridder leading the offense after Heinicke exited early with a hamstring injury. 

Considering Heinicke's injury is "low grade" and he'll get a week to rest, the question of who will start in Week 12 against the New Orleans Saints remains to be seen.  

And head coach Arthur Smith is in no hurry to tell. 

"We’re at the bye week, so we’ll take some time, step back and look at everything. A little premature," Smith said during Monday's press conference." Obviously, both of those guys have done some good things and other things that we have to assess and see where we’re at. At the start of next week, we’ll come back in, get a bonus day on Monday, and we’ll go from there.”

Ridder started the first eight games of the season for Atlanta but was benched for Heinicke during Week 8 against the Tennessee Titans and then lost his job in Week 9 and 10 against the Minnesota Vikings and Cardinals. 

After making the QB change, Smith had so over and over again that they were not down on Ridder and they didn't officially bench him for the season. Instead, he was looking at Ridder's time away from starting as more of a reset button for him, which seemed to have helped him, according to Smith. 

“Well, there’s a lot that goes into it," Smith said when asked what Ridder needed resetting from. "There are things that I think he’s done really well as a young player. Sometimes you need a fresh perspective. That’s what I think helped him. And I think you saw when he got in there. I saw his confidence and I saw a guy that’s the reason we love him and wanted him here coming out. The guy wants the ball in his hands in critical moments. He has done a lot of good. But the reset, the re-focus and working on things that I thought could help him, and he’s done that.”

Ridder has completed 65.4 percent of his pass attempts for 1,740 yards with six touchdowns and six interceptions so far this season. As for Heinicke, he completed 55.4 percent of passes for 498 yards with three touchdowns and one interception through three outings.

The Falcons have now lost three straight games and their playoff hopes are dwindling. If they want a revive themselves, they're going to need to make the right decision at quarterback and start winning.

“Just got to take a step back and look at it and make sure we’re doing what’s best for the team,” Smith said. 

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