'He's an elite competitor' - Titans banking on Calvin Ridley's edge to support Cam Ward through his first NFL season

The Titans were not the better team in two days of joint training camp practices this week in Atlanta against the Falcons.

Ridley, however, took every snap personally against the club that drafted him 26th overall back in 2018. The Alabama product was traded by the Falcons in 2023 to the Jacksonville Jaguars after serving a yearlong suspension for violating the league's gambling policy during the 2021 season. Ridley and Jacksonville did come away with a 23-7 win against his former team during that 2023 campaign, but this was the first time that the receiver had been back at Atlanta's practice facility and up-close-and-personal with Falcons fans.

Ridley made sure to let the crowd in attendance hear it every time he made a play this week in joint practices against the Falcons defense, and onlookers were quick to chirp right back.

“Calvin's incredibly prideful," Tennessee coach Brian Callahan said in an exclusive interview with The Buck Reising Show on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville. "He's an elite competitor, otherwise he wouldn't be doing what he's doing, especially at his age. And he's also a very passionate person, and he believes in what we're trying to get done. He believes in the guys in the locker room, which I think is really cool, and there's nobody that works harder than him. And I think he took it upon himself to say that, I know I can do a better job from a veteran perspective of helping our team. And now he's got a bunch of young kids around him that he can really have an impact on. And I think he enjoys that part of it. And I think he enjoys the idea that I can be in a leadership role that I've earned over my career. And the way that he works certainly earns him that right.

“There's nobody that practices harder than Calvin, except for maybe Jeff (Simmons), in terms of their effort and energy, from every snap in practice. Those guys are what makes your program come alive. Those are the people you have to have. Guys that got pelts on the wall and that practice and play it with a certain degree of intensity all the time. And Calvin, I think, had this moment where he's like, I know I can be better in that regard, and I know I can help turn this. And I think the guys that we have in our locker room, the veteran players, I think are excited by that challenge. “That's fun to be able to take something that wasn't very good last year to see how much better we can make it in year two and in year three and be able to have a lasting impact on the legacy of what hopefully our program can become. And I think they take that as a personal challenge, too.”

While Ward tries to inspire the rest of the Titans roster to carry themselves as winners, you could pick few better lieutenants for the rookie than a motivated, refreshed Ridley.