Flowery Branch — Chris Redman, who this time a year ago was fighting for a roster spot, will start the Falcons' exhibition season opener Saturday in Jacksonville, coach Mike Smith announced Thursday afternoon.

"I'm excited," said Redman, who was the No. 3 quarterback in 2007 but started and played well over the final four games, giving him front-runner status heading into this season. "It's crazy how fast things can happen, but a lot of it is from working hard and doing the right things. I'm just going to try and keep doing that and hopefully good things will continue to happen."

Smith did not disclose the rotation for the remaining three quarterbacks — Joey Harrington, D.J. Shockley and No. 3 overall draft pick Matt Ryan — who are in an open competition for the regular-season starter's job and two backup spots. In fact, Smith did not mention any of them by name.

He did say that each quarterback would start one of the four exhibition games.

That means Ryan, already tabbed as the eventual starter and signed to a $72 million contract, could start the Aug. 16 home game against Indianapolis. If not then, he could start the Falcons' Aug. 22 home game against Tennessee. The Falcons conclude their preseason schedule at Baltimore on Aug. 28.

Typically, most NFL teams treat the second and third exhibition games as the most important and play most of their top-tier players longer.

"We're going to make sure, right now, that all our guys have an opportunity to play with the first unit," Smith said about the quarterback rotation. "As we said it's an open competition for those guys, and it's going to be the first opportunity for them.

"I don't want anybody to read into anything in terms of whose going first. Our guys understand that, and they know where we're coming from."

Smith said he hopes to get each quarterback a relatively equal number of snaps against the Jaguars, where he spent the past five seasons as the defensive coordinator before the Falcons hired him to his first head-coaching job last winter.

The decision not to disclose the pecking order of the quarterbacks was to retain some sort of competitive advantage, even though this is an exhibition game, Smith said.

All the quarterbacks said the coaching staff explained how the playing rotation would work during the preseason, so each said he knows he will get his turn. Starting, at this point, isn't even the main issue for Ryan.

"I can't wait to get down to Jacksonville, really get my first game under my belt," Ryan said after the morning practice and before Smith announced the starter. "We've put in a lot of hard work the past couple week. Now we get to go have a little fun.

"As a competitor, everybody wants to play on this team. We've come into camp and everybody's competing to try and get on the field."

Since training camp started nearly two weeks ago, each quarterback has worked with every offensive unit and a variety of personnel. So the structure for their usage in preseason games won't come as anything new.

About the only change in how the coaching staff has worked the quarterbacks has been an increased workload for Shockley. The former Georgia starter has been afforded more repetitions as he got healthier from a knee injury that sidelined him for all of the 2007 season — and opened the door for Redman, then a training camp free agent, to make the roster.