Jacksonville Jaguars showing caution with Calvin Ridley
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson surprised this week, telling reporters that he is currently limiting one of the team’s biggest stars’ reps in OTAs. Calvin Ridley has missed the better part of two seasons due to injuries as well as a suspension in relation to gambling on league games.
Pederson tried to explain the logic behind limiting Ridley on Tuesday, and revealed that the receiver will be full-go once training camp begins in July.
“He hasn’t played in a while, plus the injury, so we’re just trying to be careful with him,” Pederson said. “He’s the type of guy that you have to pump the brakes with. He wants to go so much and so fast and so hard out there at practice that we just have to pump the brakes and just tell him, ‘Hey, now’s not the time.’
“But he’s doing a great job. He’s picking up the offense well. The times that he’s working with Trevor (Lawrence) on the same page, they’re connecting, and those are good things to see right now in the offseason.”
Ridley caught up with reporters as well this week and told them it’s been difficult to modulate himself to match the coaches’ plan for him.
“I only really know one speed, but I got to gradually get my body back to football, like football and be peaking into the season, not out here [in OTAs],” Ridley said. “Of course I expected I would be a little rusty because you can’t really get ready for this. I mean the heat, the helmet. Just running every day is what it really is because you get sore. I’ve got to make sure I build and not be sore in the season.”
Ridley: ‘I’m a 1,400-yard type of player’
Not all NFL fans will remember how dominant Ridley was prior to his injury and suspension. He plans to remind them.
“I am a 1,400-yard type of player, God is going to determine what type of stats I am going to have,” Ridley said last month. “Football is serious. I mean, you don’t just play 17 games straight and think you’re going to be in every one of them and playing healthy in all of them. So what I’m saying is I am a 1,400 yard receiver with a broken foot.”
Through 49 games played, Ridley has 248 receptions for just over 3,300 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns. In 2020, his targets shot up with the Falcons. He caught 90 passes for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns. That earned him a spot on the AP’s All-Pro Second-Team that year.
Jaguars fans will see Ridley for the first time sporting the No. 0 jersey when they kick the season off versus the Colts in Week 1 on the road.