Calvin Ridley wasn’t long for Atlanta. The Falcons’ All-Pro wide receiver sat out the bulk of 2021 while dealing with personal issues. Months later, he was suspended indefinitely — but for at least the entirety of the 2022 regular season — for betting on NFL games.
This tainted the value of a player who’d emerged as one of the league’s most valuable young wideouts. It didn’t make him untradeable. With an hour to go before the league deadline, he was dealt to the Jacksonville Jaguars — a team he’d bet against in one of the parlays that brought down NFL discipline — for conditional draft picks that could, at most, be worth a 2023 fifth-round pick and a 2024 second-rounder.
That’s a calculated gamble from a Falcons team with little to lose and a Jaguars offense that has been hamstrung in recent weeks by its lack of a true top wideout. So who got the better end of this deal?
The details
Falcons get: A 2023 fifth-round pick, a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick that could become as much as a second-round selection
Vikings get: WR Calvin Ridley
Here are the conditions on the 2024 4th rounder that is going from Jags to Falcons, per source.
It stays as a 4 if Calvin Ridley is on the roster.
It goes to a 3 if Ridley reaches certain incentives.
And it becomes a 2 if the Jaguars sign Ridley to a contract extension. https://t.co/e6yoxa05fh
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 1, 2022
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars looked genuinely inspired in their 2-1 start — they boat-raced the Los Angeles Chargers 38-10! — but have crumbled since. Jacksonville is 2-6, out of the playoff race and was more likely to be trading veteran talent for draft picks than acquiring it.
But bringing in Ridley counts as building for the future. It addresses a major need in the Jags’ WR depth chart. Christian Kirk was brought in to be the team’s top receiver, but after 18 catches for 267 yards and three touchdowns in his first three games opponents have adjusted and held him to 17 catches, 231 yards and one touchdown in his last five.
The optics of trading for Ridley months after handing Kirk a four-year, $72 million contract aren’t great. Even so, this is the kind of trade that can made Kirk’s pricey deal — a salary that will look better over time giving the rising price of wideouts — look better. Sports Illustrated’s John Shipley put it just about as well as I could have on Twitter.
This move should really help Christian Kirk next year. He just can't be "the guy" in a WR room. Taking attention away from him should lead to a lot of production
— John Shipley (@_John_Shipley) November 1, 2022
The risk, of course, is that Ridley is escaping one historically dysfunctional franchise for another. His hope for a fresh start is obscured by the fact he’s now a Jacksonville Jaguar, traditionally a place where hope only exists to be mocked and bullied without mercy. Jacksonville is trying to fix a player who will have been out of the league for nearly two full years before it gets him on the field in a meaningful game, assuming he’s reinstated this offseason.
Still, the Jags got an All-Pro wideout who is under contract for a reasonable $11 million next season for a relative draft pick pittance.
Not bad.
Grade: B
Atlanta Falcons
Welp, Falcons fans dreams of an unlikely but intriguing Ridley-Drake London-Kyle Pitts triumvirate will be disappointed. Thanks to off-field issues, Ridley went from a player who could be expected to fetch a future first round pick in any deal to someone traded for what’s currently a pair of Day 3 selections.
Would Ridley have ever returned to the Atlanta lineup? Tuesday’s trade suggests the Falcons didn’t think so. Despite leading the NFC South at 4-4, general manager Terry Fontenot opted against dealing Ridley for veteran help and instead opted to focus on next year’s draft.
But if Atlanta isn’t interested in immediate help, what was the impetus to do this deal now? Ridley isn’t going to return in 2022. His value, barring a disastrous off-field incident, isn’t going to get any lower. The Falcons could have waited for the offseason to deal him, especially given the dearth of receivers available in next year’s free agent class. Teams staring down a marketplace topped by Jakobi Meyers, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Parris Campbell might have jumped at the chance to add a talent like Ridley, warts and all.
Maybe Ridley never returns to the field and this turns out to be a low-key fleecing. Or maybe next year’s WR market gets so desperate teams start offering Meyers $20 million per year and Ridley’s trade value erupts. It wouldn’t have hurt the Falcons to wait and see. Instead they made a splash. We’ll see if it pays off.
Grade: C
