Desmond Ridder, the Bengals’ new No. 3 quarterback reared in Louisville before coming of age in Cincinnati, is not only deeply familiar with the ebbs and flows of a river city but also the bobbing and weaving of Joe Burrow’s footwork.

Ridder shares the same quarterback trainer with Burrow, and former Bengals quarterback Jordan Palmer makes sure they’re watching plenty of Seamless Joe tape.

“More so on the feet. How to move efficiently to the ground with no wasted motion, no wasted movement,” said Ridder as he checked into the Bengals training camp Tuesday at Paycor Stadium. “Just seeing the way he moves efficiently. The way he moves in the pocket. The way the ball comes out of his hand.

“I’m excited to learn from a guy who has played at the highest level. He’s played in the Super Bowl. In my short career, I haven’t been with anybody who has done that.”

Maybe a brief career, but it’s been crowded for a guy who doesn’t turn 26 for another month. As Ridder heads into his fourth NFL season with his fourth team, he’s already been drafted in the third round, anointed an Opening Day starter, benched and traded. At this point, he’s open to learning from Burrow and his unquestioned No. 2, Jake Browning.

“It’s an opportunity. Just to get an opportunity to go out here and play the game that I love,” Ridder said. “A lot of people can have it taken away with one play or whatever it may be. For me to have the opportunity to come in here and play football with two great guys in front of me, just another chance for me to go prove myself and continue to get better in this game.”

If Ridder sounds like a nice fit in quarterback coach Brad Kragthorpe’s room of gym rats, he is. Already a Queen City icon, he was the guy who led the University of Cincinnati to the playoffs as the first group of five team to make the postseason, as well as one of the last major unbeatens to make it. Ridder was already known in high school as a student of the game when he would sometimes wear a GoPro camera on his helmet at practice and later watch the video afterward.

“He’s super sharp and intelligent,” former UC quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli told SI’s Pat Forde during that collegiate run. “We demand a lot of our quarterbacks—a lot is on his shoulders. He handles it well. He’s not a kid who’s going to make the same mistake twice.”

When Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher saw Ridder work out Sunday with fellow veterans Tyler Huntley and C.J. Beathard, he saw some things.

“He’s a young player with physical gifts who by all accounts is smart, is diligent, goes about his work the right way, is a good person, is going to be a net positive contributor to the group,” Pitcher says.