Calvin Ridley’s limited involvement in the Tennessee Titans’ passing offense has become a point of significant frustration for the coaching staff and fans.
And the lack of action is taking a toll on the star wide receiver, too.
Ridley was held without a catch on eight targets in Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, which dropped the Titans to 1-4. The near shutout on the stat sheet – his lone touch was a 9-yard carry – comes after Ridley was held to just two catches for 14 yards on six targets in his previous two games.
Sunday’s game plan, however, proved to be particularly irksome to the pass catcher.
“I need some (targets) in the beginning of the (expletive) game, too,’ Ridley told reporters after being asked about his stat line. ‘(Expletive) is getting crazy for me.
All things Titans: Latest Tennessee Titans news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.
‘It is what it is. I sucked today. I gotta be better. But I gotta get the ball a little earlier in the game so I can be in the game and here with the team so I can play well also.’
Ridley, 29, signed a four-year, $92 million contract with the Titans this offseason, leaving many to assume he would become an immediate go-to target for quarterback Will Levis in first-year coach Brian Callahan’s passing attack. Through five games, however, he has just nine catches for 141 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Callahan, who last week took responsibility for the early issues by saying he needed to do ‘a better job’ of finding touches for Ridley, said after the game that the Titans have to get their marquee signing involved.
‘We can’t win like that,’ Callahan said in a news conference after the game. ‘He’ll be one of the first ones to tell you that’s disappointing. He’s one of our best players, and we look to him to try to make a play or two, and we didn’t get it done at the end of the game.’
Though Callahan was unable to pinpoint the source of the issues with Ridley on Sunday, he once again backed Levis as his starting quarterback, even as the second-year signal-caller reclaimed the NFL lead for interceptions on the season with his seventh of 2024.
