NFL Draft Prospects 2019: Wide Receiver - Riley Ridley, Georgia
The brother of former Alabama and now Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley, Riley got to spend a cool moment with his brother when they hugged after the 2018 National Championship game, in which the younger of the two had a breakout of sorts with 82 receiving yards.
Last year as a junior he led the Bulldogs with 44 catches for 570 yards and nine touchdowns on an offense that was built around the run and had a multitude of targets to throw to. In spite of just one year of production, I look at him as one of the top draft prospects at the position.
Ridley has good size at 6’2”, 200 pounds. He might not be the most exciting receiver for the average fan, but I really appreciate the details to his route-running and the way he plays the position.
You see the drumming of the arms and footwork to put corners on their heels as well as good swipes of the hands and reduction of the shoulder in his releases.
Ridley creates a lot of separation coming out of his breaks and simultaneously turns upfield while catching ball routes going back towards the quarterback. He is borderline uncoverable on curl routes, where he comes off the ball as a vertical threat and hits the breaks in a flash.
Ridley also runs this wonderful corner-post, where he nods outside and gets safeties spinning, just like he did in the LSU game last year.
The nuanced route-runner shows good awareness for back-shoulder fades and immediately gets ready to go across the field and start a one-on-one situation with the safety.
He might not have burner speed, but I was okay with it when he ran in the high 4.5s at the combine, plus you see that extra gear to catch up when the ball is in the air.
The former Bulldog put up a passer rating of 133.3 when targeted as a junior. He caught 44 of 60 targets, giving him an average of just under ten yards per target, and dropped just two passes all year.
Ridley plays the ball at its highest point and has strong hands to maintain the catch through the swiping hands of defenders. He might be the best in this class when it comes to catches outside his frame and he also shows good concentration when diving for the ball or reaching behind himself.
Once he has the ball in his hands, Ridley ducks under tacklers, starts and stops, wiggles through contact and continues driving his legs for yards after the catch.
His specialty is the back-juke to make a tackler whiff in space. When he is along the sideline, he doesn’t mind dropping the shoulder into a defender either. Moreover, Ridley is an excellent blocker for his fellow receivers on screens as well as in the run game, where he gets inside the chest of defenders and understands when to let go to not draw a flag for holding.
The younger of the two Ridleys doesn’t give you that vertical threat on the outside that will scare defensive coordinators.
While he is a nice overall athlete, there is nothing that really jumps out and you rarely see him win over the top. Ridley has shown the ability to release against press-coverage, but he has yet to do it consistently.
Production is the biggest question mark with this kid. While Georgia obviously spread the ball around a lot and the running backs were always the stars of the offense, you don’t see a lot of guys with Ridley’s potential produce at such a low level very often. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2017.
One of the very best route-runners and pure catchers of the ball in this wide receiver class, Ridley might not be the flashiest guy and land on many highlight reels, but I love the all-around skill-set to win off the line in different ways, the subtleties to his routes and his dependable hands.
I think his game translates exceptionally well to the pros and I wouldn’t be shocked if his receiving numbers double in his rookie year compared to where they were last season.
Grade: Late second