The Tennessee Titans inking wide receiver Calvin Ridley to a four-year, $92 million deal received no shortage of criticism from the national media, which, in all honesty, is quite short-sighted.
Did the Titans pay a lot for Ridley? Absolutely, especially when you factor in the $50 million guaranteed in his deal. However, context is needed here.
The Titans desperately needed help at receiver for their young quarterback, Will Levis. And, with Ridley in tow, the Titans now have one of the better one-two punches at the position in the NFL, which will greatly help their signal-caller, who still has to prove he’s “the guy.”
Adding to that, Ridley was the best available player at the position, thus he was always going to command a big deal.
Despite all that, Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport believes the deal the Titans gave Ridley is among the riskiest of any of the deals handed out in free agency this offseason.
That Ridley is talented is undeniable—he caught 76 passes for 1,016 yards and eight scores a year ago in his lone year with the Jaguars and posted a 90/1,374/9 line with the Atlanta Falcons back in 2020.
But Ridley missed most of the 2021 season while dealing with mental health issues and sat out the entire 2022 campaign due to a gambling suspension. Ridley may well have elite potential, but he doesn’t have an elite wide receiver’s resume.
The Titans are paying him as though he does—his $23 million average annual salary ranks ninth among all wide receivers and ahead of the likes of Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Keenan Allen of the Los Angeles Chargers and Amari Cooper of the Cleveland Browns.
Unless Ridley makes a Chase-esque impact in Nashville, it won’t take long for this deal to look like an overpay.
For the Titans, the fact that Ridley missed over a season and a half is a positive, as the 29-year-old has more tread on the tire than most wide receivers his age.
Those two years are sandwiched in between a pair of 1,000-yard campaigns, including a 2020 season in which he tallied 1,374 yards, tied for fifth-most in the NFL. He then rolled off the couch in 2023 and broke 1,000 yards again, despite the Jacksonville Jaguars not using him properly.
Calvin Ridley is still a really high-quality separator, so why was the production so volatile last season?
Let's unpack it. pic.twitter.com/FVT0TFudUu
— Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) March 7, 2024
Has Ridley totally proven he’s an elite receiver? No, but the signs sure are there that he can be.
As far as the contract is concerned, it’s true that Ridley is making an annual average that ranks No. 10 among wide receivers, and his fully guaranteed money ranks third.
But he’s going to fall in both of those rankings in due time, as stud receivers like Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Amon-Ra St. Brown and CeeDee Lamb are all due for extensions soon.
Not to mention, Ridley’s annual average is less than Michael Pittman Jr.’s, who certainly isn’t more proven.
If things don’t pan out for Ridley in Tennessee, the Titans can reasonably get out of the contract in 2026. According to Over the Cap, the Titans can cut him with a post-June 1 designation that year to save $21.75 million while only incurring a dead-cap charge of $5 million.
The fact of the matter is, there is risk involved with any big-money deal in free agency, but Tennessee’s deal with Ridley is far from the egregious contract many have made it out to be.
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