Riley Ridley (born July 21, 1996) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Early life

Ridley attended

Deerfield Beach High School Deerfield Beach High School (DBHS) is a public high school in Deerfield Beach, Florida. It is part of the Broward School District and has an enrollment of approximately 2,400. The school features the IB Middle Years Programme or Pre-IB, whic ...

Deerfield Beach, Florida Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County line. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,859, making it the Broward County# ...

. He was a four-star

coming out of high school with over 13 offers, including those from Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn. Ultimately, Ridley committed to the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

to play

College career

Ridley played in 11 games as a

true freshman The following terms are used in American football, both conventional and indoor. Some of these terms are also in use in Canadian football; for a list of terms unique to that code, see '' Glossary of Canadian football''. 0–9 ...

at Georgia in 2016, catching 12 passes for 238 yards and two

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

. As a sophomore in 2017, he had 14 receptions for 218 yards and two touchdowns. As a junior in 2018, Ridley had 43 receptions for 559 yards and nine touchdowns. After the season, he decided to forgo his senior year and enter the

2019 NFL draft The 2019 NFL draft was the 84th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2019 NFL season. The draft was held on April 25–27 in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville. The first round was held ...

Professional career

Ridley was drafted by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

in the fourth round (126th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft. He signed his rookie contract, worth $3.2 million over 4 years with a $682.5k signing bonus, on May 13. During his rookie year, Ridley was active for just one of the first eleven games of the 2019 season: a Week 4 against the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

. Due to injuries to the wide receiver corps, he began seeing increased action starting in Week 13 against the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

, and caught his first career pass the following week against the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

. He was waived during the Bears final cuts on August 31, 2021.

Statistics

Personal life

His brother,

Calvin Ridley Calvin Orin Ridley (born December 20, 1994) is an American professional football wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, where he was a part of the n ...

, also plays wide receiver in the NFL for the Tennessee Titans .

References

External links

Georgia Bulldogs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridley, Riley 1996 births Living people Ridley, Riley Sportspeople from Coconut Creek, Florida Players of American football from Broward County, Florida American football wide receivers Georgia Bulldogs football players Chicago Bears players