It’s up to Christian Gonzalez to stop Patriots offseason target Calvin Ridley

FOXBORO — The Patriots tried to make a sprinkler addition with their available salary cap space this offseason, but wide receiver Calvin Ridley chosen to join Titans on a four-year, $92 million contract.

Ridley is coming off a 10-catch, 15-target, 143-yard performance in a 52-14 loss to the Lions, and the 1-6 Titans enter Week 9 with a record worse than 2-6 patriots. So maybe signing Ridley, who has just 22 catches for 326 yards with one touchdown this season, wouldn’t have changed their team’s trajectory much this season. Heading into this week against the Patriots, Ridley wants last week’s stat line to be the standard moving forward.

“I should have every game like this,” Ridley said this week.

Patriots cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino wouldn’t confirm that top cornerback Christian Gonzalez will cover Ridley this week (“because we’re not just going to give our game plan to everybody else”), but Gonzalez covered the opposing team’s best players. wide receiver all season, and Ridley is clearly the Titans’ top option since they traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Chiefs.

“There’s no doubt as you go through the film, no. 0, Ridley, there’s no question why he was one of the best free agents and everybody wanted an opportunity to have him on their roster,” head coach Jerod Mayo said Wednesday. . “This is a guy who is heavily targeted. At the same time, he’s very open on film, sometimes he doesn’t get the ball, but he’s very open on film and that’s going to be a challenge.”

Mayo challenged Gonzalez to a shutout performance against the Jets last Sunday after the cornerback had the worst two weeks of his career against the Texans and Jaguars when he allowed a total of eight catches on 10 targets for 115 yards with a touchdown. . He answered the call against the Jets, going against Davante Adams and allowing just two catches on five targets for 25 yards, per PFF.

“He challenged me, but it’s more on me,” Gonzalez said Thursday. “Whether I’m challenged or not, I still have to go into the game knowing I’m going to be challenged by the other team.”

Overall this season, Gonzalez has allowed 30 catches on 51 targets for 305 yards and two touchdowns with one interception and three pass breakups, per PFF.

The 2023 first-round pick played just four games last season but earned a 79.3 PFF degree of coverage in its limited action. So far this season, Gonzalez ranks 41st out of 96 qualified cornerbacks in PFF. traditional degree of coverage with a score of 67.5. He ranks 43rd in PFF’s advanced coverage grade, which “uses machine learning to map the separation allowed on a play to the expected PFF coverage grade the player would have earned had he been targeted. This system also takes into account the difficulty of the task and the situation when making that assessment,” according to PFF.

Regardless of the relatively lower coverage this season, Gonzalez has once again been one of the Patriots’ best and most reliable players this season.

“He has that crazy mentality of not letting this guy win. He wants to be great and he goes the extra mile to be great,” Pellegrino said. “I’m very impressed with his work ethic. He’ll take extra reps, take scout team reps, anything football related. It is closed. He is very good in class. Very good. Very good at his film study on his own. It’s unique on the corner.”

Gonzalez has covered Ja’Marr Chase, DK Metcalf, Garrett Wilson, Brandon Aiyuk, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs, Brian Thomas and Adams so far.

It won’t get any easier for Gonzalez with Ridley, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua, Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Michael Pittman, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Amari Cooper still on the program.

“I love it,” Gonzalez said of his weekly matches. “That’s the only way to improve. Take on the best and see the best every week. They are NFL caliber receivers so you will always see a great receiver. It’s a lot of fun. It just makes me better.”

In Ridley, Gonzalez sees a “big receiver, competitor (who) runs great routes.”

The Patriots’ No. 0 and the Titans’ No. 0 will be Sunday’s game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Gonzalez passed his test last week against the Jets, but he’ll likely see a lot more targets Sunday given the state of the Titans’ wide receiver corps. Maybe Mayo should challenge Gonzalez again this week.