Calvin Ridley — Week 2: First Two Catches, Thirty-Five Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Ridley, not targeted in Week 1, caught both of his targets for 35 yards and two first downs, 25 yards deep right and 10 short left, a minute and twenty-three seconds of game clock apart on the third-quarter touchdown drive. He was also flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty that stalled a second-quarter drive, in a 24–20 loss to the Eagles.
When Calvin Ridley's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
10 to 17, Eagles, six oh six left in the third quarter, first and 10 at the Tennessee 45. Cam Ward threw deep right to Calvin Ridley for 25 yards to the Philadelphia 30, 17 of them in the air. +1.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 3.9 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. It was Ridley's first target of the season, and his first catch. Two snaps later, second and six at the Philadelphia 26 with four 43 left, Ward came back to him short left for 10 and another first down at the 16. Six plays after that Ward scored from the one and the game was tied at 17.
The line: two targets, two catches, 35 yards, two first downs, 27 air yards, +2.2 expected points on the two. Both came on that one drive, a minute and 23 seconds of game clock apart. No targets before halftime and none in the fourth quarter. The 25-yarder was one of two Tennessee throws all day that the play-by-play labels deep, and both were complete.
His other appearance cost Tennessee. With 10 58 left in the second quarter, tied at seven, Tyjae Spears ran four yards to the Philadelphia 45, and Ridley was flagged for unnecessary roughness, 15 yards from the end of the run. Second and six near midfield became second and 21. With the penalty the play was worth −1.5 expected points, the second-worst figure on any Tennessee play, and the Titans punted three snaps later.
35 yards were second on the team to Elic Ayomanor's 69. Two of Ward's 20 throws went his way, against five for Carnell Tate and three for Ayomanor.
Back in June the preview leaned toward Ridley as underpriced — the 60-eighth receiver off the board at pick one 80, two straight thousand-yard seasons before a hamstring and a broken leg ended last year at seven games — and it said to watch whether Ward looked his way when it mattered. Week 1 he was not thrown to on 32 throws. Sunday Ward looked his way twice in three snaps on the drive that tied the game, and both worked. Two targets is a start and not a role. The lean was about a player priced as if he were finished, and 25 yards down the right side is the first evidence this season that he is not. Tennessee is at the Giants on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Calvin Ridley's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going