In his first NFL regular-season action since Oct. 24, 2021, Calvin Ridley had eight receptions for 101 yards and one touchdown in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 31-21 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sept. 10. In his most recent outing, Ridley had six receptions for 106 yards and one touchdown in the Jaguars’ 28-20 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Jan. 7.

But what Ridley accomplished in those games plus the 15 in between didn’t satisfy the former Alabama wide receiver, even though he passed 1,000 receiving yards and led Jacksonville in receiving yards and touchdown receptions after missing the 2022 season while serving an NFL-imposed gambling suspension.

“It wasn’t the best season at all personally,” Ridley said. “Definitely as a team, we didn’t reach the goals we wanted. But for me personally, it wasn’t everything that I wanted really. …

“I just needed to be more focused and more dialed in, figure out my routine faster, figure out how to get back into the flow of it faster. It’s not as easy as people think, but I was trying to figure out faster and remember those situations, those one-on-one situations, those – you know, just figure the game out.

“But I think next year will be a better year for me, for sure. Just to get this year under my belt, it was important, though.”

Despite his stats, Ridley said he didn’t have the same chemistry with Trevor Lawrence as the receivers who had worked with the Jacksonville quarterback previously.

The NFL suspended Ridley indefinitely on March 7, 2022, which turned out to be for the 2022 season after he was reinstated on March 6, 2023. While Ridley was suspended, the Atlanta Falcons traded him to the Jaguars on Nov. 1, 2022.

“We needed a little bit more time, honestly,” Ridley said. “I came straight out of suspension, man. Just like one day they told me I could come back. I flew here, everything was fast for me. That’s not excusing nothing. But we were rushed. We work hard as we could with the time. Honestly, we worked ourselves tired, and I can admit that right now. We tried everything. We threw. We ran. We were sore. We were hurt. We did everything. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the results we wanted. We worked for it, though.”

Ridley said he didn’t take any time off: “I’m pretty proud of practicing every practice, playing every game.”

Ridley said he would take the necessary steps to ensure he would be more satisfied with the 2024 campaign.

“I’m going to hit this offseason, for me personally, to get better so I’m coming back and happy about my play,” Ridley said. “… I’m going to be better, man, for sure. Toward the end of the season, I was feeling a lot better. Just knowing everything and seeing it clear, and not even really feeling tired or sore or anything anymore. I found a good routine, I found a good space, so I’m going to build from that and definitely try to fix all the (expletive) I had.

“But I like me. I love me, so I just got to hit this offseason good, and I know now how to train this offseason and what I need to do. I need more receiver work, so it’ll be good.”

The team that will benefit from Ridley’s offseason work isn’t known. Unless he signs a contract extension with the Jaguars before March 13, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent.

“I got out of this season healthy,” Ridley said. “I know I’m a good player, for sure. I feel young. I can run fast still, I can tell you that. Whover wants a good player.”

Ridley said he would prefer to stay with Jacksonville.

“I like these guys,” Ridley said. “I built relationships with them. I don’t really care to learn other people, plays and all that other stuff right now.”

Ridley’s offseason already is underway because the Jaguars lost five of their final six games. Jacksonville had an 8-3 record entering December and still could have made the playoffs by winning in the regular-season finale against Tennessee, which had lost to the Jaguars 34-14 on Nov. 19.

“We don’t feel good all the time,” Ridley said. “You get injuries. Your team is not always together. The weeks are just hard. Somewhere in those weeks, we kind of lost it, I think. We couldn’t nail those moments that we needed to. We just needed our juice. We didn’t have the juice, I felt. I don’t know. We kind of lost it right there a little bit. We just needed some juice.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.