The Jaguars made the decision to trade for Calvin Ridley prior to the trade deadline midway through the 2022 NFL season despite his season-long suspension for betting on NFL games back in 2021. Can he help take the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence to the next level?
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen Ridley on a football field. 601 days to be exact. October 24th, 2021 in a four-catch outing against the Miami Dolphins. Back then, Matt Ryan was still the Falcons’ quarterback and his connection with Ridley was telepathic. With Ryan as his quarterback, Ridley caught 248 passes for 3342 yards and 28 touchdowns across 49 games.
Alongside Julio Jones, Ridley carved out a role as one of the better flanker receivers in the NFL, able to take the tops off defenses with his exceptional deep speed and high-level separation. Once Jones missed much of the 2020 season, Ridley stepped into the role as the defacto number-one receiver on the Falcons and didn’t miss a beat, recording 90 catches for 1374 yards and 9 touchdowns on 143 targets.
Now, almost a full two years after his last NFL game – and his last for the Falcons – Ridley is preparing to head into training camp with the Jaguars after they traded a conditional fourth-round pick to acquire him. The hope is that Ridley can help elevate Lawrence to the next level in 2023 and there’s every reason to believe he can.
Let’s talk about Lawrence for a moment. He took a massive step forward in his development in what can essentially be called his rookie season. The 2021 season under Urban Meyer was about as bad of a situation as a rookie quarterback could be thrown into, but he flourished with Doug Pederson as his head coach in 2022. Lawrence upped his completion percentage from 59 percent to 66 percent, cut down on turnovers, threw more touchdowns and yards, and finished 9th in EPA per play, per RBSDM.
He did that without a true number-one receiver at his disposal. The Jaguars rolled with a receiver room consisting of Christian Kirk – who they gave a 4-year $72 million contract in the offseason – Zay Jones, Marvin Jones Jr., and tight end Evan Engram. That core helped Lawrence settle in Year 2, but Kirk – Lawrence’s favourite target – operated mostly from within the slot. Zay Jones was a nice outside receiver, but if the Jaguars wanted to take another step offensively, then they’d have to dip into the market for a true number-one guy.
The hope is Ridley can be just that. He’s been away from football for almost two years now, so there’s no telling how sharp he’ll look early on. But based on talent alone, Ridley should be a big help for Lawrence. His ability to line up as a flanker or as an X receiver playing on the line against press coverage means he can be deployed in a variety of ways, but he profiles more as an X.
Per Reception Perception, Ridley faced press coverage on 18 percent of his routes in 2021 and had a success rate of 75 percent – meaning he got open 75 percent of the time against press. It’s a small sample size of five games, but Ridley can do it all. Or, at least, he could the last time we saw him on a football field.
The talent won’t disappear. Ridley is 28 years old and has undoubtedly been keeping himself in playing condition instead of just sitting on the couch waiting for the call, but the ring rust might take a few weeks to shake off. Once it does, Ridley will become the leading target for one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Giving him another option to help his steady development. The Jaguars’ offense could be even better than last season, despite a worse offensive line, as the potential chemistry between Lawrence and Ridley will be a big reason why.
-Thomas Valentine
Twitter: @tvalentinesport
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.