Jaguars Twitter celebrates reinstatement of Calvin Ridley

The NFL announced in March 2022 that Ridley was being suspended indefinitely for betting on games during the 2021 season. He missed the entire 2022 campaign due to the suspension but was acquired by the Jaguars in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons in November.

The 28-year-old Ridley was selected by the Falcons as the 26th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and had back-to-back seasons of over 60 receptions and more than 800 receiving yards, along with 17 combined receiving touchdowns while playing in the shadow of seven-time Pro Bowler Julio Jones. Ridley had his breakout in 2020, recording career highs in targets (143), receptions (90) and receiving yards (1,374) while adding nine receiving scores.

He appeared in only five games in 2021, before stepping away for the rest of the campaign to focus on his mental health.

With Ridley now officially in the fold, Jacksonville has one of the most lethal offenses in the NFL on paper.

Trevor Lawrence is only 23 years old and is fresh off his first Pro Bowl season and Travis Etienne is 24 and just had 1,441 yards from scrimmage as a rookie. Christian Kirk, Zay Jones and Evan Engram all had huge debut seasons with the Jaguars in 2022 — each posting at least four touchdowns, over 750 receiving yards and more than 70 catches — and they’re still just 26, 27 and 28 years old respectively.

Kirk had the biggest season of them all, erupting for career highs in targets (133), receptions (84), receiving yards (1,108) and receiving touchdowns (eight).

With a winning head coach like Doug Pederson at the helm too, Jacksonville is destined for success in 2023, as long as they can sniff out the rats.