{"id":222710,"date":"2025-07-20T19:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/222710\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T19:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:23:11","slug":"bengals-sign-qb-desmond-ridder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/222710\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals Sign QB Desmond Ridder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bengals have agreed to terms with free agent QB Desmond Ridder<\/a>, per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network<\/a>. Ridder was eligible for restricted free agency this offseason but was non-tendered<\/a> by the Raiders. A planned Broncos workout did not take place<\/a>, and a workout with the Colts did not produce a deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ridder, who will turn 26 next month, entered the league as a third-round pick of the Falcons in 2022. He earned a starting job by the end of his rookie year, and he was named the starter in advance of the 2023 campaign. Despite a brief demotion in favor of Taylor Heinicke<\/a> that year, Ridder started 13 games, winning six of them.<\/p>\n

His performance was generally underwhelming \u2014 and was certainly not enough to prevent Atlanta from signing Kirk Cousins<\/a> in free agency last offseason \u2014 and he was traded to the Cardinals shortly after Cousins came aboard. Ridder ultimately lost Arizona\u2019s backup quarterback battle to Clayton Tune<\/a>, and after he spent several months on the team\u2019s taxi squad, he signed with the QB-needy Las Vegas outfit.<\/p>\n

Ridder started just one game for the Raiders (in Week 15), and he completed 23 of 39 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown against two interceptions in a 15-9 loss. The new Vegas regime is moving forward with Aidan O\u2019Connell<\/a> as its backup to new acquisition Geno Smith<\/a>, leaving Ridder to search for his next opportunity elsewhere.<\/p>\n

As he battles for his NFL future, Ridder will at least be in familiar environs, as he excelled as a collegian with the University of Cincinnati (leading the Bearcats to the college football playoff semi-finals against Alabama in 2021). Bengals HC Zac Taylor worked as the Bearcats\u2019 offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016 and played a significant role in recruiting Ridder, per Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Conway says Ridder will be competing for the No. 3 spot on the depth chart with Logan Woodside<\/a>. That indicates Jake Browning<\/a>\u2019s job as Joe Burrow<\/a>\u2019s top backup is safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bengals have agreed to terms with free agent QB Desmond Ridder, per Tom Pelissero of the NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,10206,7,19907,13885,6,3571],"class_list":{"0":"post-222710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-desmond-ridder","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jake-browning","15":"tag-logan-woodside","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114887197053392677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}