One of the biggest questions on the trade block for the National Football League as teams head into making their offseason moves surrounds the availability (or lack of it) for Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley. With financial concerns and a midseason hiatus due to mental health issues in 2021, Ridley’s potential baggage might be enough for Atlanta to trade him to the highest bidder.
As long as the Falcons are willing to pay Matt Ryan as one of the most expensive quarterbacks in the NFL, they are going to be focused on staying as competitive as they can year to year. That might seem to cast some shade on the idea of dealing away Ridley, who is one of the league’s elite wide receivers, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
In a recent report surrounding the Falcons offseason plans to create more cap space, Sam Wyche detailed a few moves that are available for the Falcons this spring. One of those was about trading Ridley.
Sam Wyche says a potential trade of Calvin Ridley seems likely for the Atlanta Falcons, which should have the K.C. Chiefs checking in.
The Falcons have to create cap space to be mid-market shoppers in free agency. How? From NFL Now @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/Y8bb4Mnxb7
— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) February 28, 2022
In the video, Wyche specifically says the moves include “possibly if not likely trading Calvin Ridley. That would save 11 million dollars. There are some issues there where they feel like maybe a clean break for both sides could be good.”
Wyche’s understanding of the situation is certainly not a green light that Ridley is widely available or destined to switch teams with any level of certainty. However, Wyche’s intuition is another arrow pointing in the same direction of other such reports that have Ridley on the outside looking in of the Falcons’ future.
Ridley is not only due the $11 million ($11.116M to be exact) this year but he’s also heading into a contract year, which means the Kansas City Chiefs or any other interested team would likely want to think about a long-term contract with Ridley at the same time as the trade (e.g. Frank Clark). Then again, the Chiefs could play it like the Orlando Brown Jr. trade and let the season play out only to take care of things a year later with a tag available as leverage.
As for the price tag of $11M for this season, the Chiefs shouldn’t scared of that since they were willing to go near $8-9 million last year for JuJu Smith-Schuster. It makes sense to bring in Ridley for just a bit more there.
The real question for the Chiefs is really about the sort of draft asset that the Falcons would need in return for someone like Ridley. Given the strength of the draft class at wideout, do the Chiefs really want to trade for someone instead of drafting them? Then again, the Chiefs have allowed two strong classes to go by without a major draft investment already—with Cornell Powell being the only receiver drafted in that span.
There are other considerations here, such as Tyreek Hill’s looming contract concerns and his own age. The Chiefs need to think about getting deeper and younger, so maybe that leaves Ridley out. That said, Ridley is also an elite wideout and the chance to grab a player like him is a rare chance. For that reason, Brett Veach has to at least consider the idea and what he would be comfortable with giving up in the process.
Adding Ridley to the Chiefs’ offense would cause opposing teams to lose sleep in preparation of trying to stop such a dominant passing attack. If the price is right in a few ways, Ridley is a trade worth considering and it sounds like it could happen from the Falcons’ end.