Falcons HC Arthur Smith talks QB plan
The Atlanta Falcons are 4-5 after losing to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, but they're still in the hunt for the playoffs. The question of who will finish the season as their starting quarterback remains. For now, head coach Arthur Smith wants to stick with Taylor Heinicke as their QB1 in Week 10 against the Arizona […]
The Atlanta Falcons are 4-5 after losing to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, but they're still in the hunt for the playoffs.
The question of who will finish the season as their starting quarterback remains.
For now, head coach Arthur Smith wants to stick with Taylor Heinicke as their QB1 in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals.
His reasoning? Atlanta has been able to get some more points with Heinicke under center.
"We’ll go with Taylor this week and kind of reassess after this week going into the bye. There are always things to work on," Smith said during Monday's press conference. "He’s played the last six quarters, and we’ve scored 48 points with him back there. Obviously, we want more than that, but that will be the plan this week.”
The Falcons are on the road this and then enter their bye week before finishing the second stretch of their schedule.
Smith will get one more real shot to look at Heinicke in a winnable game against the 1-8 Cardinals and make his final decision from there.
“I think the bye comes at a good time…," Smith said. "You don’t want to play a two-quarterback system or whatnot, but I think just kind of where we’re at and everything going on, the bye week will be a good time to assess, and don’t plan on being week-to-week after that, but we have to do everything we can to go get this win out in Arizona. That’s going to be our ultimate focus this week.”
Despite rolling with Heinicke, Smith isn't officially benching Desmond Ridder.
Ridder, who started the first eight games of the season for Atlanta, completed 65.4 percent of his passes for 1,701 yards with six touchdowns to six interceptions.
As for Heinicke, he has completed 33-of-59 passes for 443 yards with two scores and one pick through two outings.
"Going into this week, just kind of looking at everything and where we’re at, really the whole situation that we think is best for our team right now is for Taylor," Smith said. "Doesn’t mean anything’s over for Des, but we need to go get this win out here in Arizona. We feel like that gives us our best chance with everything going on right now.”
Falcons make quarterback change vs. Titans
Taylor Heinicke’s time starts now.
