Falcons owner Arthur Blank put some pep in the step of second-year quarterback Desmond Ridder this week.

Blank publicly endorsed Ridder and head coach Arthur Smith said on Wednesday that the four starts at quarterback made the former third-round draft pick in 2022 helped the team chart the course ahead with confidence.

“There’s no unknown anymore,” Smith said.

Ridder is the No. 1 quarterback in Atlanta where the Falcons have shuffled the depth chart to include Taylor Heinecke. Marcus Mariota began last season as the starter but left the team after Ridder’s promotion for the final four games of the regular season.

“That’s comforting for me to know Mr. Blank and everyone in the organization believes in me,” said Ridder, who passed for 708 yards and two touchdowns last season, with no interceptions over 115 attempts.

Blank said the Falcons won’t have every answer on the QB situation until games take place, but the organization is leaning a positive direction with Ridder.

“We feel pretty strongly that he’s going to be our quarterback in the future,” Blank said Tuesday.

Ridder said his vision and goals exceed even the strongest supporters in the organization. He makes sure not to spend his “two minutes” each day on social media investing in other opinions, but couldn’t help but acknowledge the owner’s stamp of approval.

“For me it’ll hit a little more closer to home than what the other media says,” Ridder said. “But especially in camp, I don’t see that or know about it. For me, it’s about going to work and grinding.”

–Field Level Media

Veteran cornerback Fabian Moreau signed with the Denver Broncos, filling the roster spot vacated Wednesday when wide receiver Tim Patrick was placed on injured reserve.

Moreau, 29, is entering his seventh season since being chosen by Washington in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

In 90 games (45 starts) with Washington (2017-20), Atlanta (2021) and the New York Giants (2022), he has 240 tackles, six interceptions, 35 passes defensed, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.

Patrick tore his left Achilles tendon in practice on Monday and will require surgery. He missed all of the 2022 season with a torn right anterior cruciate ligament.

Patrick, 29, caught 53 passes for 734 yards and five touchdowns in 16 games in 2021. In four NFL seasons, all with the Broncos, Patrick has amassed 143 receptions for 2,009 yards and 12 TDs.

–Field Level Media

The race to replace Tom Brady as starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is tightening midway through training camp.

Any edge Baker Mayfield had over Kyle Trask was largely erased with Monday and Tuesday showings by Trask, a backup to Brady in Tampa the past two seasons.

“It just took a couple of days for Kyle to really settle in and then what we saw in the last two practices, Kyle really showed what he can do, stretching the field with his arm, getting the ball out quickly, and making decisions,” offensive coordinator Dave Canales said.

Mayfield signed as the presumed starter after making three stops in a whirlwind 2022. He was traded to the Panthers by the Browns, started the season as the No. 1 quarterback in Carolina only to be released and signed by the Los Angeles Rams.

The offensive scheme is new to Mayfield but the Buccaneers also changed coordinators, from Byron Leftwich to Canales. Most of the concepts are fresh to Trask, too.

“He is mastering the concepts,” Canales said of Trask. “The more that he can, in a pre-snap way, gather information and really start to progress. You know in any pass concept that you have, you could have as many as three or four progressions, but you do not have time to check all three. It is kind of like a true sprinkler type of read. When guys start to play comfortable and play fast, is when they eliminate one and two, then they are getting to three and four in the same rhythm they would. That is what I am seeing from him that I am excited about. Then the other thing too is just — what is happening with Kyle is, as I call a play, he is finishing the play — the sentence before I can finish it. That just speaks to him studying the offense, studying the formations, and being really comfortable with what we are calling.”

Canales said veteran offensive assistant Tom Moore charts and times every throw in practice. The coaches, including QB coach Thaddeus Lewis, huddle to discuss practice plans and performance as part of their plan not to name a starting quarterback in April or May.

“I think what we are seeing is a couple of guys who both have to put themselves into that starter mind frame going into the practices, knowing, ‘Hey, today is my day. I get to roll with the ones. I get a few more reps,'” he said. “It is pretty much even. Even with the way we go ones and twos, the way we do it. I just see the two guys really challenging each other. Then the cool part is in our room, which a lot of people don’t get to see and hear, is just rule number one, we are here to help the Bucs win. Whatever that is, we do that.”

Mayfield, 28, is 31-38 as a starter since being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by Cleveland in 2018.

Trask, 25, has only appeared in one game since Tampa Bay drafted him in the second round in 2021.

–Field Level Media

Eyioma Uwazurike allegedly bet on five Denver Broncos games and two Iowa State games while he was part of those teams.

A formal complaint filed in Story County, Iowa, on Tuesday includes other former Cyclones teammates.

Uwazurike, 25, faces a charge of tampering with records stemming from the alleged wagers, as does returning starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers. An attorney for Dekkers said he would not play or practice while defending himself from charges, which also include tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton said Wednesday the revelations weren’t news to the Broncos.

“It’s a legal matter. We’ve been up to speed all along. We’ll just leave it at that,” Payton said. “There’ve been no surprises, nothing that’s new to us. We’ve cooperated, and we’ll continue to cooperate in every step that’s required.”

Uwazurike was suspended indefinitely last week by the NFL for betting on games. He was picked in the fourth round (116th overall) in the 2022 draft.

Iowa prosecutors asserted Uwazurike placed 801 bets online for more than $21,300, with four wagers on Iowa State football games. He also made bets on at least one NFL game in which he played as a rookie in 2022 — Week 15 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Uwazurike and Dekkers, along with two other Iowa State athletes named in the complaint, are all scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 16.

–Field Level Media

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley took a step in the right direction simply by changing his cleats.

Ridley sat out practice Tuesday because he was dealing with what the team termed a minor toe injury, coach Doug Pederson confirmed Wednesday.

But Pederson clarified that Ridley was good to go now that he punted his ill-fitting cleats.

“He’ll be fine. We were sort of cautionary with him yesterday,” Pederson said, per the Florida Times-Union. “He’ll be back out there today and we’ll just monitor him and limit the amount of running that he’ll do.”

The Jaguars are hoping for a big comeback this season from Ridley, who served a year-long NFL suspension in 2022 for betting on football games and hasn’t played a full season since 2020.

Ridley, 28, played in only five games with the Atlanta Falcons in 2021 before stepping away to focus on his mental health. He posted career highs in 2020 with 90 catches for 1,374 yards.

The Jaguars acquired him at the trade deadline last Nov. 1, sending a 2023 fifth-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-rounder that could potentially become a second-round pick to the Falcons.

He caught 248 passes for 3,342 yards and 28 touchdowns in 49 games (35 starts) with the Falcons, who drafted him in the first round out of Alabama in 2018.

The Jaguars open the preseason at Dallas on Aug. 12 and kick off the regular season at AFC South rival Indianapolis on Sept. 10.

–Field Level Media

Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp might be idle for multiple weeks with a hamstring injury that forced him to leave training camp practice Tuesday.

Kupp left the field 30 minutes into the workout and Rams public relations confirmed he was injured. ESPN reported an MRI showed Kupp would miss time but could be back on the field in 1-2 weeks.

Kupp played nine games last season before a season-ending ankle injury but led the NFL in receptions, yards and touchdowns in 2021.

“Obviously, we’re much better when he’s here, and we hope he’s going to be OK,” Los Angeles coach Sean McVay said. “If he’s not, we’ll see what happens, but the practice had to go on.”

The Rams are nearly six weeks away from the regular-season opener at Seattle on Sept. 10. The final preseason game for Los Angeles is Aug. 26 at Denver, which could be a reasonable target for Kupp to resume on-field work.

“I know he’ll do everything he can to work through whatever is going on and be back out here whenever it’s the right time,” Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said.

Kupp is the No. 1 receiver for the Rams, who traded away Allen Robinson II, with Van Jefferson and Ben Skowronek listed as the No. 2 and No. 3 options for Stafford on the team’s depth chart.

Kupp, 30, has 508 catches for 6,329 yards and 46 touchdowns in 80 games (66 starts) since the Rams drafted him in the third round in 2017.

–Field Level Media