"We felt we had an answer in (Desmond) Ridder" - When Falcons owner Arthur Blank spoke about not pursuing Lamar Jackson

The Atlanta Falcons started their 2023 season at 2-0 but suffered plenty of challenges by the middle of the season. The biggest of them was the performance of quarterback Desmond Ridder, who was benched twice due to performance concerns and turnovers. Under fire, the Falcons fired coach Arthur Smith.

When Falcons owner Arthur Blank faced the media in a January 2024 news conference alongside CEO Rich McKay, he was asked if it was a mistake not to pursue Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in free agency. Blank defended the decision to persist with Ridder.

“Was it a mistake to not pursue (Jackson)?" Blank said. “You’re asking me that? I don’t think so. It’s easy to say ‘yes’ given his year, and he’s obviously an incredible player. … But we felt we had an answer in Ridder.”

Blank pointed out that there were several factors behind the decision. The biggest of them all was the salary cap limitations, which were aggravated by Jackson’s non-exclusive franchise tag. It allowed Jackson to pursue a contract in free agency and then let the Ravens decide if they wanted to match that value or not. He clarified that it was a unanimous decision.

“I think the coaching staff felt — coach and personnel, all of us felt collectively, with certainly coach and Terry that we felt we had an answer iniRidder, a younger player without that kind of contract that would’ve kept us from actually building the team we wanted to build.”

Arthur Blank contradicts his statement on not pursuing Lamar Jackson

However, Arthur Blank contradicted his comment. In April 2023, he didn’t mention the Falcons' salary cap space limitation but rather cited that he didn’t want to tie up 25% of the cap space in one player. The Falcons had a cap of $224.8 million in 2023, which equates to $56.2 million for 25%. Meanwhile, Jackson’s contract was worth $22.15 million in 2023, but he later signed a contract worth $55 million annually.

Blank further said that it wasn’t an insult to the 2019 NFL MVP winner but rather a decision to stick with Ridder. However, the decision backfired soon as Ridder struggled with consistency while Jackson secured another NFL MVP season to his resume in 2024.