Will Perriman help Ravens find elusive WR success?
For a team that's been a fixture in the playoffs for the last decade, the Baltimore Ravens are getting little hype going into the 2016 season. They're coming off an uncharacteristically gruesome 5-11 campaign, albeit one that was marked by devastating injuries to key players.
By season's end, the Ravens had 20 players on injured reserve, the most in the eight seasons of the John Harbaugh era, including Joe Flacco, Terrell Suggs, Steve Smith, Matt Elam, and Justin Forsett.
Only two of Baltimore's losses in 2015 were by more than one score. It's easy to figure with minor improvement and a little better injury luck, the Ravens could return to form in 2016. Among the players returning from injury is 2015 first-round pick, receiver Breshad Perriman, who missed all of last season after suffering a torn PCL during training camp.
There was a scare back in June that Perriman had suffered another injury that would have sidelined him for 2016, which had some Ravens fans ready to throw out the "bust" label. When rumors subsided, the news ended up being Perriman receiving stem cell treatment in his knee, with his expected return date falling sometime during Ravens training camp.
Tuesday, the receiver took part in his first camp practice, with teammates ribbing him for essentially being the new guy on the field despite being with the organization for more than a year.
It's true, though, that Perriman has become something of an afterthought in league circles. Though he was the 26th overall pick in 2015, he was coming out of the University of Central Florida, a school with little prominence on the national stage. Since he went down before the start of last season, NFL fans haven't gotten a chance to familiarize themselves with him. Often, unless a rookie is successful right out of the gates, there's the presumption he's never going to be, even if the reason is injury. Jadeveon Clowney is working to beat that perception in Houston.
Ozzie Newsome is often heralded as one of the NFL's most savvy general managers, though with the exception of Torrey Smith, he's had difficulty developing quality receivers through the draft. Perriman is the third wideout taken by Baltimore in the first round in Newsome's reign, with the first two (Mark Clayton in 2005 and Travis Taylor in 2000) making marginal contributions at best. In the weeks leading up to the draft, Newsome acknowledged his struggles with drafting receivers, though noted that in general players at the position were coming into the league better prepared than even in the recent past.
So there's personal and institutional pressure for Perriman to succeed. He insisted to the Ravens' website this week that he will prove "worth the wait". Baltimore will need him to be sooner rather than later. The rest of the receiving corps has its share of question marks. Steve Smith is a possible Hall of Famer though at the age of 37 certainly slowing down a bit. The Ravens are looking to pair Perriman with Mike Wallace to get Joe Flacco a slew of deep ball options, though Wallace's career has been foundering the last few years following an encouraging start in Pittsburgh.
Perriman underwent a cosmetic change in advance of what he hopes to be his breakout year. Back in July, he revealed on Twitter that he cut off his once-signature dreadlocks. Doing so, he said, shed three or four pounds off his weight.
Beat reporters have noted that Torrey Smith cutting his hair in 2013 preceded a career year in Baltimore, though that doesn't actually mean much of anything. Simply getting on the field will count as an early victory for Perriman. 2016 will still effectively be a rookie season for him, replete with expected growing pains, though it could be a season on a playoff team if he can show even a portion of his promise. The Ravens will have the chance to sneak up on some teams this season, which isn't something many have been able to say about them in a while.
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