Jay Glazer mentioned on the Takeoff with John Clark podcast that the Eagles were close to trading for Falcons WR Calvin Ridley last month before the news of his suspension for gambling on NFL games last season.
“It was actually funny because they were one of the teams, they were close to a deal with Atlanta for Calvin Ridley and Atlanta backed out at the last second,” Glazer said, via NBC Philadelphia. “And Philly was like, ‘What’s going on?’ They couldn’t really tell them. So Philly wasn’t too happy and then after, looked at it like, ‘Alright, Atlanta, thanks.’ Atlanta did business the right way. They weren’t allowed to say anything, again, the legalities of it, couldn’t say a word. They just had to pull out.
“But, man, if Philly could have gotten a talent like Calvin Ridley when he didn’t have these issues, that would have been good for them. Again, they’re aggressive. Howie (Roseman) is always really aggressive. That would have been big, especially with a lot of Alabama guys. That would have been a good one had he not had the issues, but he did. So Atlanta just had to pull out and couldn’t tell them for a couple weeks why.”
Ridley will now serve at least a one-year suspension before potentially resuming his NFL career in 2023.
Ridley, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Falcons back in 2018 out of Alabama. He played out the fourth year of his four-year, $10,900,732 contract that included a $6,007,804 signing bonus.
The Falcons exercised Ridley’s fifth-year option last offseason which will cost Atlanta $11.116 million fully guaranteed in 2022.
In 2021, Ridley appeared in five games for the Falcons and caught 31 passes for 281 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
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