Atlanta Falcons: Calvin Ridley isn’t a number one receiver…yet

The Atlanta Falcons finally pulled the trigger, a week ago they traded the best receiver in the history of the franchise to the Tennessee Titans.

The Atlanta Falcons fans are going to hurt for a little while because Julio Jones was probably the most popular Falcons player in recent memory. While the numbers he put up will be missed, there shouldn’t be much of a drop-off in production from their new number one guy.

Calvin Ridley has all the ability in the world.

You can see his improvements year by year so that made it that much easier to part ways with Julio Jones. While he’s coming off the best season of his young career, next year will prove something to the fans of the Atlanta Falcons.

Calvin Ridley is not ready to be the number one receiver for the Atlanta Falcons

This isn’t a dig at Ridley at all.

He’s one of the best wide receivers in the league. However, now he has to deal with consistently being the man week in and week out. This doesn’t mean he will never get to the levels of Julio Jones and Roddy White before him; it just won’t be as easy as it was his first two seasons in the league.

Ridley has had the luxury of playing beside the likes of Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu, and Austin Hooper at various points in his career.

None of those guys are the type of players you want to forget about on the offensive side of the ball. Now he will find himself surrounded by guys like Russell Gage, Hayden Hurst, and Atlanta Falcons first-round pick Kyle Pittsv- all of whom are talented but none of those guys will draw attention like Julio did which made life a little easier on Ridley.

Julio Jones and Roddy White made life easier for Matt Ryan due to the fact that they could catch some of those wild throws he tends to make due to their ability to go up and get the ball. Ridley has shown flashes of being able to do the same but not on a consistent level like his predecessors and that’s where he’ll come up short – initially.

Ridley will become that elite wide receiver as soon as he becomes more consistent but we should expect those growing pains of being the number one receiver to show their ugly head from time to time in 2021.

He will get his numbers as the top receiver for the Atlanta Falcons but don’t expect Ridley to fill the shoes of Julio Jones so soon.