A New Face in Jacksonville

Calvin Ridley is a stud when on the field. After posting almost 1400 yards in his third season, an injury riddled fourth season and suspended fifth season have led many to forget about the talent Ridley possesses.

When the Jaguars acquired the 27 year old suspended receiver for a complicated and confusing slew of draft compensation, it was merely pushed aside for the big man trades of this year: Christian McCaffrey, Bradley Chubb, and Roquan Smith. But in my opinion, it will end up being the biggest and most important trade of the record setting deadline we had this October.

The Jaguars have not had their on field play translate to their record, that is a fact. All 6 of their losses have come by 8 or fewer points, and they have looked dominant in their 2 wins. The Jags rank 8th in net EPA per play, meaning they are the projected 8th best team in point differential. Defensively, they have some holes, but their main offensive hole was the lack of a number 1 receiver. Despite the overpaid contract Christian Kirk received this offseason, he is not a number 1. Ridley is a number 1 caliber receiver however, and should be Trevor Lawrence’s top target for years to come, if the 2 sides can agree on an extension, which I expect they will.

Now, let's look at what makes Ridley so good.

The thing that jumps off with numbers is his speed. His 4.43 40 yard dash put him in the 85th percentile for that, with a 66th percentile speed score. Ridley’s speed can be seen in their game against the Bears in 2020. On the first drive, Ridley runs a go route right past the safety in cover 2, hauling in a 63 yard catch. He follows this up on 2 different routes. One is a curl, seen circled blue. Ridley explodes off the line before a sharp break back to the ball in between a slew of Bears defenders. The second route is a speed out, seen circled in yellow. Ridley gains on the zone corners outside hip while the corner is in his backpedal on the play, then without losing any speed, darts to the sideline on a rounded turn to secure the 25 yard gain. The reason it is so effective is because he follows the same path as that fade as you can see on the route tree, before breaking, showing good play design by Dave Ragone and the Falcons, but also good football IQ by Ridley to notice that and use it to his advantage on the field.

These plays can be seen in this Youtube video. The times are 2:19 for the go, 2:31 for the curl, and 2:47 for the out.

His speed also comes into use on crossing routes. Ridley ran a slew of underneath mesh routes to beat Tampa’s soft zone or trail man coverages, and his speed gave zone linebackers an especially tough challenge to the tune of 8 catches.

Ridley’s route running is another especially eye popping part of his game. Ridley uses his aforementioned speed to gain on the back pedal of a lot of zone corners before breaking out on speed out routes. He does this multiple times in this game against Seattle, here is one example. The corner is backpedaling, signaling their signature cover 3 zone, and Ridley vertically attacks, before rounding out a 20 yard out at full speed. This is the first clip in the previously mentioned Youtube video.

He can also break very well on routes in man coverage. Against Dallas he does this, breaking inside to flip the corner's hips before a sharp outward break at the top of the route (1:11 in the video). In this play against New Orleans, we see Ridley go in-out-in, releasing in to break free of his man, stacking back outside, before breaking off a sharp in route in man coverage (5:34 in the video).

The last elite part of Ridley’s game is his release. He often mixes up a quick one step speed release with some more multi-step creative releases to break free of tight man coverage at the time of scrimmage. We see a quick one on this play against the Raiders, with Ridley bursting out to gain inside leverage for his slant on one step, before cutting inside to make the catch with the corner now out of the picture (6:01 in the video). We can see the contrast to his multi-step releases against Kansas City. 2 hard outside steps followed by a third plant step allows Ridley to explode inside on this same slant route. The quickness of these 2 steps allow Ridley to out-leverage the corner, and he is able to break across the corner’s face untouched (9:07 in the video).

Ridley does have weaknesses. He is not a vertically explosive athlete, and struggles with catch radius and contested catch ability, although he has made some nice high point catches. Ridley does not have an impressive vertical. He has had some drop issues in the past, although he has been very good when he last played. Ridley did drop off a bit in 2021, but that may have been due to a more limited route tree, and not actual play.

Ridley makes sense for the Jags in many ways. A Florida native, he is back in his home state, which may entice the talented receiver to ink a long term extension. Coach Doug Pederson’s West Coast style offense is perfect for a route running type receiver like Ridley, and I did not even mention the elusiveness he brings after the catch, something Pederson will like to use. Overall, Lawrence and Co. will need a weapon like Ridley to join the supporting cast of Kirk, Zay Jones, and Travis Etienne in the backfield. With the addition of some defensive pieces to the solid core that already exists in Jacksonville, barring a surprise move in Ridley not being reinstated, he will look to jumpstart the Jags back into contention, something they have not seen since the Blake Bortles era.

The most slept on trade deadline acquisition is one that can not even play this year, however for the future, watch out for Calvin Ridley as the piece that makes the Jaguars a team capable of stealing the AFC South in 2023.