Ridley is ‘ready to take off’ in ’24
NASHVILLE — Calvin Ridley has a message for anyone worried the Tennessee Titans overpaid for him or that the wide receiver who missed essentially two NFL seasons won’t live up to his new four-year, $92 million deal.
“I’m a good player. I’m the type of player who deserves this contract,” Ridley said Friday. “I’m going to say that. I’m a player that you want in the building, someone who’s going to work for your organization, who all their life as a kid, I rode city buses to high school just to go to school.”
Ridley spent last season in the same AFC South Division as the Titans while playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He had 76 catches for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns, and he was really good against Tennessee.
He made seven catches for 103 yards and two scores as the Jaguars won a rout at home in mid-November. He then had six receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown in a 28-20 loss in the regular-season finale in Nashville.
The Jaguars acquired him from the Atlanta Falcons in November 2022 while he was suspended for the season for violating the NFL’s gambling policy. That came on the heels of the former Alabama Crimson Tide star, a 2018 first-round draft pick for the Falcons, sitting out the final two months of the 2021 season, an absence he explained in a social media post that read: “I need to step away from football at this time and focus on my mental well being.”
Now with his third NFL team, Ridley said he knows he can put up better numbers. He also said there were things in Jacksonville that made him “uncomfortable” and played a part in him not signing a new deal with the Jaguars after he became a free agent this past week.
And on Friday, he took the chance to share his side of the story.
“I’m not proud of that at all. I wish I could just throw it away, but that’s what I have. That’s what I had,” Ridley said.
He noted that in his time with the Jaguars, he gave them not only a 1,000-yard season and eight touchdowns but didn’t miss a game or even a practice.
“I didn’t come late to nothing. I respected them and everybody in the building,” Ridley said. “I look at it as a win for me personally, when I have to think about it like that. If I don’t, I’m going to think I’m a failure when I did pretty decent with two years off. I did pretty decent. I look at it as that.”
Ridley reiterated that his work ethic is strong and he plans on “only going up.”
“I’m ready to take off,” he said.
Ridley also said he plays and feels younger than his age.
“I’m 29 on paper, but I’m probably like 25 for real, to be honest with you,” he said.
Ridley also is looking forward to teaming up with threetime All-Pro DeAndre Hopkins to form what should be a nice receiving tandem for Will Levis going into the Tennessee quarterback’s second NFL season.
“I know D-Hop. I train with him all the time. I can learn a lot from him. He’s been really consistent his whole career. His catching, his routes and just his mentality to be a dog, a really high-caliber type of player,” Ridley said.
As for Levis, Ridley said he is eager to work with the 33rd overall pick of last year’s draft.
“What I’m most excited about is that he’s young, and I’m a vet, and I feel like when you’re in that role, it’ll be a little more easier for me to talk to him and communicate with him,” Ridley said.
Ridley also knows the Titans’ new offensive coordinator, Nick Holz, who had been the passing game coordinator in Jacksonville.
“Obviously, you have an offensive coordinator and a quarterbacks coach, but I’ve played this game for a long time and know how to get open and put us in some good situations,” Ridley said. “I’m excited that he’s young and probably willing to learn, but I’m older and willing to learn, too.”