NEWSLETTER
If you hung around NFL Free Agency Twitter for long enough this week, you were probably going to get a reply tweet in your mentions about Calvin Ridley re-signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars after the start of the new league year because of some stipulations in the deal they made with the Atlanta Falcons to acquire him in the first place.
On the one hand, those people were technically correct in predicting that Ridley would wait until *AFTER* the new league year began to sign. But on the other hand, they misfired on the ultimate landing spot. Calvin Ridley is going to the Tennessee Titans on a whopper of a deal:
And this is why I don’t like playing the game of assumption. The NFL always finds a way to pull a rabbit out of a hat this time of year. I’m not sure anyone can say they saw Calvin Ridley signing with the Tennessee Titans as a plausible thing until it happened. For what it’s worth, I, for one, love surprises. And so long as Ridley’s signing didn’t come with a Bears rival, then this is the kind of surprise I can deal with. However, I don’t imagine the Jags love seeing the news of a division rival swiping their leading receiver from right under their noses. Ope!
Calvin Ridley and the wide receiver market
Based on reports of what the Bears were offering free agent receiver Gabe Davis before he signed with the Jaguars, I felt as if the Bears weren’t going to be in the market for Calvin Ridley. Sure, I would’ve liked it and welcomed the addition with open arms. But, realistically, if you take what Davis got from the Jags and use some context clues, then you’d come to the conclusion that I did — which is the Bears were not going to give Ridley a four-year deal worth $92 million that features $50 million guaranteed. Kudos to the Titans for making that happen. I wish the Bears were in a position to do something similar.
For what it’s worth, the Bears could still be in on a big fish in the receiver market:
This feels like a good time to point out that CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones believes Mike Williams and the Bears could be a free agency fit. Jones makes the connection between Williams and new Bears Wide Receivers Coach Chris Beatty, who was the Chargers’ position coach before landing in Chicago. And since it is on our mind, Beatty was also D.J. Moore’s position coach in college. Maybe Beatty and Moore can tag team a plan to reel in Williams as a free agent.
Of course, the Bears would have to pay him handsomely in order to fully connect the dots. And with that Calvin Ridley contract being what it is, I imagine that might change some things in that regard. But the juice could be worth the squeeze there because Williams is a quality player who we’ve seen thrive as a 1A or 1B option as Keenan Allen’s sidekick in Los Angeles. This situation deserves to be monitored with great interest.
