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Ben Arthur
AFC South Reporter
While there will be plenty of offseason chatter revolving around the contract negotiations for Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who’s eligible for an extension this spring, the uncertain future of one of his top targets is consequential as well.
Veteran wide receiver Calvin Ridley, who just wrapped up his first season with Jacksonville, is also eligible for a second contract, after playing 2023 on his fifth-year option. What makes Ridley’s case unique is that the Jags would owe the Falcons their 2024 second-round pick for extending him, due to the parameters of their trade with Atlanta for the former first-round pick in 2022. Ridley is also older than your typical player looking for his second contract. He’ll turn 30 next season.
Would general manager Trent Baalke and coach Doug Pederson be willing to swallow that pill?
“Obviously, [he’s] a player that we’ve all liked on offense, and he’s got a lot of talent,” Pederson said at his end-of-season press conference. “He made us better as a team and you hope that things potentially work out, [but] you never know how things go. It’s a crazy business, but Calvin was definitely a bright spot for us offensively.”
Of the Jaguars top three wide receivers (Christian Kirk and Zay Jones are the others), Ridley was the only one to play all 17 games. He had a team-high 1,016 receiving yards and eight touchdowns on 76 catches.
After stepping away from the NFL in 2001 to focus on his mental health and then being suspended for all of 2022 for violating the league’s gambling policy, Ridley was playing organized football this past season for the first time in nearly two years. Yet he didn’t miss a practice, let alone a game. In fact, he was never even on the injury report. To do that and be the leading receiver on a new team with a different scheme, quarterback and playcaller is an impressive feat, considering Ridley’s circumstances.
He was also…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/should-jaguars-re-sign-wr-calvin-ridley-after-inconsistent-season
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Publish date : 2024-01-31 23:05:28
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