Calvin Ridley was loose, fun and confident as he was introduced by the Titans, giving people every reason to be confident he’ll produce at a level that will live up to his four-year, $92 million deal with $50 million guaranteed.
He missed 11 games of 2021 and all of 2022 in a gambling suspension and credited himself for doing as well as he did in his 2023 return with a new team when he caught 76 passes for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns.
“Y’all got a player,” he said. “…Two seasons out. I gave you 1,000 and eight touchdowns, I didn’t miss a practice, I didn’t miss a game. I didn’t come late to nothing. I respected everybody in the building. I look at it as a win for me personally.”
He was candid about his desire to stay in Jacksonville but said things didn’t work out and spoke of things being “a little uncomfortable” at times with the Jaguars – “let me explain to you why I dropped that pass, why it looks like this, , why I didn’t play good here” -- and his eagerness to be treated like a grown man in Tennessee.
He knows DeAndre Hopkins, believes being paired with him will help his game, has a connection with offensive coordinator Nick Holz, likes the defense and sees the Titans as up-and-coming.
“Obviously the money was pretty good, so I went with that,” he said. “…It’s my chance to really finally say some things.”
Ridley said he was so football-hungry when he was young that after two city bus rides to school and home from school, he took two more to watch football practices where he’d be playing the following year, getting home at 11 p.m. before doing it all over again,
He’s 29 but feels 25 and said he can run with the youngest and he can run all day. In Brian Callahan’s offense, he expects to move around far more than he did last season.
As for concerns about what he will become like after the big-money contract, he again cited his numbers after a long time on the sideline.
“I’m a hard worker, I play football,” he said. “I don’t understand. It doesn’t hit me how it’s hitting y’all. I earned this. It’s all I know. It’s just not hitting me like that. … I can’t worry about that. If I do, then I’m going the wrong way.”
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