Calvin Ridley is ready to resume his NFL career after it was disrupted by a year-long gambling suspension when he was on the Atlanta Falcons roster.

Now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the former Alabama wide receiver has a positive outlook on his football future.

“If I’m being real, if I’m being honest, I’ve been good at football all my life,” Ridley told reporters on Wednesday. “Not to be — I’m trying to be humble, right? Like I said, I’ve been pretty good at football all my life and I not only been good, I also worked to be good. They say 2 years off, but what about the healing process that I got to do with that time off. What if I got faster? What if I got stronger? Obviously, I got wiser. Why can’t I be better? … But I see myself being a good player, I do.”

The Jaguars traded a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft and a conditional fourth-rounder in 2024 for Ridley from Atlanta at the trade deadline in November. He was suspended after the league found that he bet on NFL games in 2021 while away from the Falcons to address mental health concerns following a home invasion.

“What if I got faster? What if I got stronger? Obviously, I got wiser. Why can’t I be better?”

– @CalvinRidley1 on his time away from football pic.twitter.com/ZYL1Ech0Xo

— NFL on CBS ? (@NFLonCBS) April 19, 2023