NFL: Calvin Ridley Raising Bar For Rookie Receivers

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The Atlanta Falcons’ newest weapon, Calvin Ridley, is taking over the 2018 rookie class.

After absorbing a wildly entertaining first quarter of football one thought keeps popping into my mind: How electric Atlanta Falcons’ rookie wide receiver Calvin Ridley has been. This may be biased considering I drafted Ridley for my fantasy team, but either way, the rookie has been fun as hell to watch. Call me crazy, but other than Week 1 where he did squat against the Eagles, you could say Ridley’s been the most exciting rookie, so far this season.

Ridley flashed his playmaking ability in a 31-24 win against the Carolina Panthers, finishing with four catches for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Panther fans jumped to Twitter wondering why their team drafted DJ Moore instead of Calvin Ridley. For those who don’t know Moore was taken two spots ahead of Ridley, doesn’t start, and has only two catches for 54 yards and one touchdown. Great job Carolina!!

The true catalyst for lighting the league on fire started in a Week 3 overtime loss to the Saints. Ridley eviscerated the Saints secondary with seven catches for 146 yards and three touchdowns. Not bad right?

On his first touchdown of the game, you can see what makes Ridley so special. Just watch this BEAUTIFUL stop-and-go route: Ridley fakes out cornerback P.J. Williams, by twitching his shoulders just enough to make the cornerback think he’s cutting to the middle then breaks away for a simple pitch-and-catch touchdown. He makes this play look easy but don’t be confused, most rookie wide receivers struggle to sell a route like that.

Last season it was obvious the Falcons were still licking their wounds after a gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots. The offense looked stale and struggled to convert in the red zone, scoring one touchdown on just 50 percent of opportunities (23rd ranked in the league) despite having a 6-foot-3 genetic freak named Julio Jones at wide receiver.

This year has been different, the Falcons’ offense is averaging 29 points per game, and converting 66.7 percent (6th in the league) in the red zone. Matt Ryan has finally looked like the 2016 player that won the MVP, silencing the “are we sure Atlanta should have paid him all that money?” whispers. This year, Matt Ryan has thrown for 1,316 yards (6th), 10 touchdowns (6th), and averaging 9.1 yards per attempt (3rd). Meanwhile, Julio Jones is leading the league with 502 receiving yards. The Falcon’s offense is thriving and mainly because of the new red zone dimension Calvin Ridley adds to their offense. Despite another loss last week to the Bengals, the Atlanta offense is rolling. Ridley, cementing himself as the NFL’s best rookie receiver, found his way into the end zone two more times.

His second touchdown was another showcase of this ridiculous talent. This time, he burns Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick with a double move, putting the cornerback on roller skates.

If you haven’t been counting that puts the rookie at SIX touchdowns in his first four games! No other rookie has more than three this year. And you know what else? Right now the rookie wide receiver has caught more touchdowns than Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr., Rob Gronkowski, Keenan Allen, Larry Fitzgerald, and Zach Ertz combined!

I’m not a big fan of the “he’s on pace to” one-liners that never actually happen, but what the hell! Calvin Ridley is on pace to catch 60 balls for 1,056 and 24 touchdowns — that would break Randy Moss single-season touchdown record (23 touchdowns). Again that’s probably not going to happen but here’s the thing: Atlanta’s offense is going to keep writing checks they’re decimated defense can’t cash. In their last three games, the defense has given up 37, 43, and 31 points due to injuries (Keanu Neal, Deion Jones, and Ricardo Allen). On the flip side, Atlanta is going to be in a shootout with most teams, giving Calvin Ridley an opportunity to put up insane numbers.

By the end of this season, Atlanta’s record is probably going to be atrocious. After all, they’ve suffered too many injuries on defense to keep their team from winning games. They won’t make the playoffs, but right now this offense is damn fun to watch! Calvin Ridley, unquestionably, is a huge reason why.

CATEGORY: NFL