The Jaguars are making a bet for the future. Despite Calvin Ridley serving a full-season suspension, he is changing teams. The Falcons are sending the former first-round wideout to the Jags, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
The sides are still determining a final compensation package, but the trade has been agreed upon. Jacksonville will send Atlanta a package that will max out with a 2023 fifth-rounder and a 2024 second. The latter part of the Falcons’ haul is classified as a conditional 2024 fourth, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
Ridley’s Jacksonville performance and duration will impact the trade value. If Ridley plays for the Jags in 2023, the conditional fourth-rounder must be conveyed. If he hits certain performance thresholds, the Falcons will receive a 2024 third. The pick upgrades to a second if the Jags extend Ridley, per Schefter, adding an intriguing variable into one of the more unusual trades in recent memory (Twitter link).
Atlanta was on the verge of trading Ridley to Philadelphia earlier this year, but the impending gambling suspension nixed it. Now, the Jags are parting with two picks for a player who cannot play for them until next season.
While unexpected, this is an intriguing swap. The Jags are 2-6 and may not have a true complement for Christian Kirk. Ridley stands to fill that role next year, though he is neither a sure thing nor signed long term. Ridley’s contract tolled to 2023, due to the suspension, but he is set to play on a fifth-year option salary ($11.12MM). The Jags will still attempt to see how he looks with Trevor Lawrence.
A Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native, Ridley is on the older end for a 2018 draftee as well. The 6-foot-1 pass catcher will be 29 before his first Jaguars season ends. The Jags will still provide a landing spot for the embattled pass catcher, who did not finish the 2021 season with the Falcons. Ridley left the team for personal reasons midway through the year. With that preceding his gambling ban, it is fairly surprising a team is willing to trade for him. Ridley must wait until February 2023 to apply for reinstatement.
When available in Atlanta, Ridley looked like one of the NFL’s top young receivers. The ex-Julio Jones sidekick posted back-to-back 800-plus-yard seasons with Matt Ryan in 2018 and ’19 and broke through in 2020, hauling in 90 passes for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns. That came during a season in which Jones’ hamstring trouble began to become a regular issue, leading to Ridley’s rise into Ryan’s top weapon. Not too much time has passed since that point, but the Falcons have completely closed the book on this period.
Atlanta has now traded Jones, Ryan and Ridley within a 17-month span. The team also let Thomas Dimitroff-era draftee Russell Gage sign with Tampa Bay. The Falcons still roster Olamide Zaccheaus from the previous era but now have a new quarterback and new top playmakers. GM Terry Fontenot chose Kyle Pitts and Drake London in the top 10 over the past two years. The Falcons will sink or swim with those rookie-contract performers catching passes, though the team is using a run-oriented attack with Marcus Mariota presently.
The Jaguars gave Kirk a four-year, $72MM deal but also signed Zay Jones to a three-year, $24MM accord this offseason. The team has 2021 free agency addition Marvin Jones playing out his contract. Kirk still resides atop Jacksonville’s long-term aerial pecking order, but the Jags have made an interesting splash to see if it can land a high-end supplementary piece in Ridley. Between Kirk and Ridley, the latter’s 2020 season represents the only 1,000-yard showing. It remains to be seen if the 2018 first-rounder can show that form again.
A bet for the future? Pun intended?
has to be
you could say it’s a real gamble
Uh ok
Sooo, you’re saying they’re going to gamble on Ridley huh??
My guess is that Ridley isn’t the only player with a DraftKings account.
#FreeCalvin
A year long suspension for what he did is absolute insanity.
How didn’t Pete rose do something similar and he was banned from baseball and was black ball hated pretty much by the league till things calm
Down recently for him
Rose was actively managing a team while placing bets. Ridley was home injured and couldn’t have had an impact in any way.
Rose placed tons of bets while playing and managing, including against his own team, and adjusting for inflation, the bets were much larger. The betting itself was also illegal, which wasn’t true in Ridley’s case.
Pete Rose accepted the life time suspension deal to avoid being prosecuted. Part of the deal allowed him to apply for reinstatement in future.
No. Rose accepted the lifetime ban because he could apply for reinstatement and that accepting this was not an admission of guilt. Talk was that Rose was running out of money trying to fight it. Right after he signed it, the commissioner broke the agreement by saying that Rose bet on baseball. There was an agreement that said the commissioner’s office wouldn’t do this. This had nothing to do with being prosecuted. The legal system doesn’t care about his banishment from baseball
Rose could have done absolutely nothing and let the investigation take it’s course, if he had nothing to hide. The problem is, he did have things to hide – that’s why he couldn’t let it continue, so he took the option that he felt protected that truth from coming out
If Pete Rose wants to be reinstated, he can let the investigation open up again Although, everyone with a brain cells knows what will turn up.
Wow. I like the bet (sorry). Before the suspension, it seemed like Ridley needed a change of scenery. When he’s on the field, he’s a true outside, number one receiver, even if not one of the elite ones. The downside is obvious, but to get that guy (after a year with no wear and tear) for $11.2 million would make this a great deal for a team that needs a receiver like him.
And for Atlanta, it’s obviously good. They were going to have to get rid of the guy and now they have an extra second.
Agreed. And, if Jacksonville sees the need to extend him after his current deal (provided Ridley does not get suspended again), the second rounder will be worth the trade.
Yep. And if he balls out and signs elsewhere, they could get a third round comp pick back.
You do have to wonder how much Pederson’s presence impacted Jacksonville’s interest. Philadelphia wanted Ridley after Pederson left, but that isn’t to say that they looked at him while Pederson was there. Perhaps Pederson wanted to draft him, and Roseman agreed. In that case, I think we can expect the Jags to work Ridley in thoroughly when they are able to, and not try to avoid upgrading that pick due to his snaps or extension clause.
Ridley was known as a route runner, so I think we can expect more intermediate routes in Lawrence’s future if that’s the direction that Pederson wants to go. What will remain to be seen is how this effects the Kirk deal down the line-of course, Ridley must return and be effective first.
They could certainly use better route running than Zay Jones. Yuck.
Yeah, I was sad to see that. I was a fan of his in his prior stops.
Not like he killed or hit someone . Sure he did the betting I bet alot do but don’t get caught . So this is a good upside move for the jags . They get a good player to go along side Kirk .
Calvin Ridley? Really? I thought he was the Snake Plisken of the NFL. I heard a you. I heard you was dead. Wow. Like Tampa Bay trading for Brent Seabrook’s contract. LMAO
You forgot Snake’s reply. “I’m an a…hole”
Compensation sucks..but this was a smart move by Atlanta. He can’t be counted upon. Better to get something rather than nothing. This young rebuilding team doesn’t need all his drama around it.
To summarize, Ridley for:
2024 Second Round
2023 Fifth Round
Conditional pick that would be no worse than 2024 fourth, but could go up to a second if he gets extended by the Jags.
To me, that is a solid haul for a guy who ‘checked out’ on the Falcons in 2021. He could rebound to be a top 15 type WR, but that’s a big chance and he only has one year left on his contract even if he does (aka, if he rebounds he will almost certainly command big money).
Definitely not a bad move by the Jags as he is a first round type player, but with the recent history and upcoming free agency they are taking a bigger gamble than the Falcons.
Correction on the above, I misread it to be three picks, one of which was conditional. Turns out it is only two and the first one listed above is the conditional pick.
With that frame of reference I don’t think the Falcons got enough. Even if he isn’t mentally into playing for whatever reason (he was a healthy scratch a couple of weeks), one would have to think some other team would have paid more to roll the dice. Oh well.
trevor lawrence doesn’t deserve calvin ridley send him to baltimore asap
A 2024 2nd round pick is not to shabby for him if that’s what happens. I always though he was overrated anyways. Just an opinion.
Am I the only one that remembers the Eagles 2021 attempt to trade for Calvin Ridley? Atlanta had to back out due to Calvin mental issues that caused him to sit the rest of the season. Wonder how those issues have been addressed with the gambling suspension?
I think the situation is somewhat similar to taking a flyer on a head case like Antonio Brown. Both those guys can be game changers if they can focus on football but there’s also a risk of getting burned.