Interesting. I recall 2007, when Matt Ryan was drafted and entered preseason third on the depth chart. By the end of the second game, he was named season starter and neither of the two QBs ahead of him seemed to put up much of a fight. He was pretty good from the beginning. Hard to believe he played for 14 years before being shipped to Indy.

The way I see quarterback battles is that coaches need to put the best player on the field. Other players don't want to help develop a quarterback for the future at the expense of losing today. They're one play away from a career-ending injury, so they want to win now. They can play and practice their butts off and the team might throw that effort into the trash by playing a QB who is less capable of making that effort pay off. Brian Flores nearly lost the locker room by playing Tua ahead of Ryan Fitzpatrick when Fitzpatrick was charismatic and playing pretty well.

That's why I don't expect to see Desmond Ridder play in Atlanta until we're out of playoff contention [which may not be too long, this season].