Falcons set to get 3rd round pick for Calvin Ridley trade

The saga took its twists and turns, but now we know the end result.

The Calvin Ridley trade was an exercise in patience for the Atlanta Falcons. They received a fifth round pick last March after Ridley was reinstated from his suspension for gambling, and then waited to see how the 2023 season would play out. Ridley, as it turned out, hit the markers necessary to graduate a 2024 fourth round pick to a third round selection, and the Falcons still had a chance to nab a second rounder from the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Unfortunately for Atlanta, that depended on the Jaguars signing Calvin Ridley to an extension before the new league year, a clause I don’t think Terry Fontenot will be including in any trades going forward. The Jaguars predictably decided to drag things out on that front after Ridley had a good-but-not-phenomenal first season in Jacksonville, hoping to keep the talented wideout around while also ensuring they only had to give up a third rounder for Ridley.

With the new league year here, the Falcons are indeed only getting a third round pick from the Jaguars. Somewhat hilariously, the Jaguars actually paid a price for trying to get too cute, and Ridley signed a blockbuster deal with the Tennessee Titans yesterday that will make him the new top target for Will Levis.

From Atlanta’s perspective, that probably helps take some of the sting out of not getting a second rounder. It’s impossible to know how many teams were in on a Ridley trade post-suspension—we know the Eagles were interested before the suspension—but I don’t get the sense that Fontenot was making the deal with high hopes that the Jaguars would be handing over that second rounder. He likely hoped the Jaguars would decide they couldn’t live without Ridley and couldn’t chance him getting to the open market, of course, but the third rounder was a borderline lock if Ridley simply stayed healthy. Getting a third rounder and fifth rounder back for Ridley when it seemed obvious he was not going to play in Atlanta and the Falcons weren’t negotiating from a position of strength may not go down as a huge win in your personal scorebook, but at least it’s a solid return. The Falcons should have no trouble putting an additional second-day selection to work for them this year.

The Jaguars, meanwhile, bungled this badly. As Jaguars beat writer John Shipley wrote, Jacksonville could’ve tagged Ridley and gotten away with not paying the second rounder. Instead, they couldn’t get a deal done with pass rusher Josh Allen and were forced to use the tag on him instead, waiting until the new league year with Ridley and losing him to a team that was simply willing to pay him more money. Jacksonville ended up giving up a third and fifth round pick for one year of Ridley, which is not a price they wanted to pay given the team’s fortunes in that year.

The real winner? Ridley, who earns a huge deal and goes to a team where he’s going to be at the top of the food chain, given that DeAndre Hopkins is going to be 32 years old and Levis will surely appreciate Ridley’s route-running wizardry. I’m happy for him, happy that the Falcons came away with solid compensation for trading him, and happy that Jacksonville’s attempt to play the deadline blew up in their face.