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

Ridley is coming off of a 10-catch, 15-target, 143-yard performance, but it came in a 52-14 loss to the Lions, and the 1-6 Titans come into Week 9 with a worse record than the 2-6 Patriots. So, perhaps signing Ridley, who has just 22 catches for 326 yards with one touchdown this season, wouldn’t have changed the trajectory of their team very 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 all games like that,” Ridley said this week.

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

“There’s no question, as you go through the film,  No. 0, Ridley, there’s no question why he was one of the top free agents, and everyone 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 open a lot on film, sometimes doesn’t get the ball, but he is open a lot on film, and that’s going to be a challenge.”

Mayo challenged Gonzalez to have a shut-down performance against the Jets last Sunday after the top cornerback had the worst two-week stretch of his career against the Texans and Jaguars when he allowed a combined eight catches on 10 targets for 115 yards with a touchdown. He answered the call against Jets, facing off 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. “Regardless if he challenged me or not, I still gotta go into the game knowing I’m going to be challenged from 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 coverage grade in his limited action. So far this season, Gonzalez ranks 41st among 96 qualified cornerbacks in PFF’s traditional coverage grade with a 67.5 mark. He’s 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 they been targeted. This system also factors in the difficulty of the assignment and situation when making that assessment,” per PFF.

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

“He’s got that dawg mentality of not going to let this guy win. He wants to be great, and he does all the extra things to be great,” Pellegrino said. “I’m very impressed with his work ethic. He’ll take extra reps, he’ll take scout team reps, anything that has to do with football. He’s locked in. He’s very good in the classroom. Very good. Very good at his film study on his own. That is unique at corner.”

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

It’s not going to get any easier for Gonzalez going forward with Ridley, D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen, Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua, Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Michael Pittman, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Amari Cooper still on the schedule.

“(I) love it,” Gonzalez said of his weekly matchups. “That’s the only way to get better. Go up against the best, and you’re gonna see the best every week. They’re NFL-caliber receivers, so you’re always gonna see a great receiver. It’s a lot of fun. It only makes me better.”

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

The Patriots’ No. 0 vs. the Titans’ No. 0 will be the matchup of the day on Sunday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Gonzalez aced his test last week against the Jets, but he’ll likely see far more targets on Sunday given the state of the Titans’ wide receiver corps. Perhaps Mayo should put out a challenge to Gonzalez again this week.