Calvin Ridley is good but not a complete receiver – yet

One of the few bright spots of the 2020 NFL season was breakout wide receiver, Calvin Ridley.

Thankfully, the Atlanta Falcons 2020 season is officially over, and they can now start focusing on the 2021 offseason. It is obvious that one guy they can start the rebuild process around is Calvin Ridley.

Calvin Ridley finished the year with 90 receptions, 1,374 receiving yards, and nine touchdowns in fifteen games this season. The most impressive stat for Ridley was his receiving yards which were tied for fifth in the NFL with Devante Adams.

Ridley’s best trait as a receiver is his route running.

While it has been an ongoing joke about Julio not scoring enough touchdowns, Ridley does do a great job of scoring touchdowns with his route running and has caught 26 of them in his first three seasons.

He has a lot of strengths to his game, but he also has a lot of weaknesses. Unfortunately for the Falcons his weaknesses are holding him back from being a complete receiver.

What Calvin Ridley needs to work on moving forward to take the next step.

For Calvin Ridley to be a complete receiver, he needs to drastically improve on making catches in traffic and his strength. We have seen countless times this season Ridley making the catch at first but then the ball pops out when a defender makes contact with him.

The best examples are when Calvin Ridley plays the Saints. He always torches Marshon Lattimore but countless times when he torches him, Marcus Williams is right there to make contact with Ridley and the ball is knocked out.

Another example of Calvin Ridley not being a complete receiver is being able to go up and catch the football instead of waiting for it. The best example of this was Week 15 against the Buccaneers.

On third down, Calvin had a chance for a touchdown if he went up and caught the football. Instead, Ridley waited for the football and the defender was able to bat the football down.

Ridley has a lot of strengths to his game, but his weaknesses are holding him back from being a true number one receiver. Hopefully, he can continue to build on his 2020 season with another strong 2021 season.