Calvin Ridley, the best offseason pickup no one is talking about

Just about everybody is jumping on the Jacksonville Jaguars bandwagon after the way they finished out the 2022 NFL season. Under new head coach Doug Pederson, the Jaguars went from picking first overall in the NFL Draft for two straight years to winning the AFC South, winning a home playoff game, and giving the Kansas City Chiefs a really good game in the divisional round. The Jaguars have assembled a talented roster, but one of the most interesting and underrated moves they’ve made in the last year is trading for wide receiver Calvin Ridley, a former first-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons.

Technically, the Jaguars made this move to acquire Calvin Ridley before last year’s trade deadline, but he was officially reinstated into the NFL in the 2023 offseason after a suspension for all of 2022 for gambling on NFL games. Even though the Jaguars traded for Ridley last season, he’s joined the team this offseason and really was one of the only major veteran additions this Jaguars team made.

The Jags were abnormally quiet in free agency in 2023, standing by the roster construction that’s been ongoing the last handful of years. And rightfully so. We finally saw how things could come together with the right coaching just last season, especially down the stretch.

The Jaguars went into the 2022 NFL season with arguably the worst group of receivers in the league. They added Christian Kirk and Zay Jones in free agency along with tight end/receiver Evan Engram. That trio of additions was widely (and frankly, correctly) viewed as a major risk-reward group.

They vastly outproduced expectations.

Jacksonville Jaguars top receivers without Calvin Ridley

• Christian Kirk: 84 receptions, 1,108 yards, 8 TD
• Zay Jones: 82 receptions, 823 yards, 5 TD
• Evan Engram: 73 receptions, 766 yards, 4 TD
• Marvin Jones: 46 receptions, 529 yards, 3 TD

And so, in that top four, Ridley will obviously replace the departed veteran Marvin Jones, who returned to the Detroit Lions this offseason in free agency. Ridley didn’t play in the entire 2022 season, of course, but also only played in five games back in 2021. The Jaguars are easing him into work at OTAs and he’s looked good thus far.

The Jacksonville Jaguars may not have a player who screams “WR1” on paper but one thing Trevor Lawrence undoubtedly does really well is spread the ball around to his guys. This coming season, they may not have a player who tops 1,000 yards receiving, but they might have five different players with at least 500 receiving yards including running back Travis Etienne.

Calvin Ridley is going to make everyone in this receiver group that much better because he knows how to get open, he make plays in the open field, and he’s going to draw plenty of attention away from other guys.

Davante Adams even has Calvin Ridley among his top five receivers in the NFL this season…

Whatever the Jaguars end up getting from Calvin Ridley, I think the risk was worth the potential reward when they traded basically nothing to get him. And in a best-case scenario? I think the Jaguars might have made the most underrated move of the “offseason”.