Jaguars General Manager Trent Baalke said at a Thursday press conference that impending free agent edge rusher Josh Allen will be back with the team in 2024, but he didn’t make the same guarantee when it came to wide receiver Calvin Ridley.
That’s not because the team is planning to move on without the wideout, however. The Jaguars acquired Ridley while he was serving a season-long suspension for violating gambling rules and he’d missed much of the prior season with the Falcons because of mental health issues, so it was a long layoff when he hit the field.
Baalke said that Ridley “did some awfully good things” while catching 76 passes for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns and that he thinks the arrow is pointed up for the wideout for 2024, but a return isn’t a sure thing.
“When you bring in somebody in that hasn’t been a part of football for over a year and a half, you gotta knock the rust off,” Baalke said. “He did that and, at times, he showed who he was and what he used to and what he can be. The sky’s the limit. He’s only going to get better because of the way he works. When you love something as much as he loves football, you can’t help but get better. We would love to have Calvin back. We are going to work toward that. What that means is, I don’t know right now.”
If the Jaguars have to use the franchise tag on Allen, it might impact their ability to hold onto Ridley before the start of free agency so there will be a lot to watch as the offseason gets rolling in Jacksonville.
