Baltimore Ravens: Don’t worry about Breshad Perriman yet

Other than the Oakland Raiders and fourth overall pick Amari Cooper, no team is relying more on a rookie wide receiver more than the Baltimore Ravens are with Breshad Perriman. In the case of the Ravens, they are a playoff team, and Perriman has drop and route-running concerns, whereas Cooper has widely been recognized as the safest prospect in the draft class.

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True to his polarizing nature as a prospect, Perriman has been the subject of plenty of knocks in the offseason so far, and we’ve heard plenty of reports about how he’s been dropping too many passes at practice. Just recently, the Baltimore Sun’s Aaron Wilson wrote that it has been a different UCF product, former New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills receiver Kamar Aiken, who has “consistently worked with the first-team offense throughout minicamps and organized team activities”.

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Wilson added that Perriman has been “dropping routine passes” this offseason, and it seems like this adds fuel to the fire that Aiken or even Marlon Brown could conceivably start over the Ravens first-round rookie. After all, Aiken isn’t a bad 26-year-old sleeper, as he has sub-4.5 wheels with a 6’2″, 215-pound frame and plenty of athleticism. In his first season with significant playing time, Aiken chipped in nicely for the Ravens in 2014 with a 24/267/3 line, showing more consistency and red zone ability than expected.

There’s no denying the fact that Perriman is raw, otherwise the 6’2″, 212-pound beast with sub-4.3 speed, a 36.5 vertical, and terrific strength and explosiveness would have gone even earlier than 26th overall. The drop concerns have been the most pronounced this offseason, but consistency at the position has more to do with route-running than just drops. Obviously, making the catch is important, but for Perriman, the key could be whether or not he’s able to put himself in position to make the catch.

It’s why we shouldn’t be worried about Perriman yet, because, in all sincerity, we can’t really evaluate his route-running ability until the preseason. We know from his tape at UCF that he doesn’t run the most crisp and refined routes, but there’s more to it than just rawness and a lack of savvy.

See, Perriman can easily make up for his lack of experience by doing what he did in college; being faster, more explosive, and more agile than others. He probably will struggle with the nuances of the position as a rookie, but Perriman is more than just a guy with speed and strength; his ability to gain separation with his incredible quickness and lateral movement could overcome the less smoothed-over parts of his game. He’s the definition of a “sudden athlete”, so if he can break his routes more, then he could make up for his lack of attention to detail as a young prospect.

It’s worth noting that despite the negative rhetoric, ESPN NFL Nation’s Jamison Hensley listed Perriman as a starter over Aiken and Brown in a projection he wrote up last week. In fact, just a day before he wrote up that starting lineup, Hensley reported that the Ravens lack of interest in Reggie Wayne, who most likely has hit the wall anyway, is because they are comfortable with their young wideouts and don’t see receiver as a “pressing need”.

That counts as a vote of confidence in Breshad Perriman, even if it’s only a mild one on the part of the organization. I mean, if they were so worried about Perriman’s drops, lack of focus, mental errors, and rawness undermining his sheer athletic ability and explosiveness, then they would have made moves to upgrade the position at some point this offseason. Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens spent a first-round pick on Perriman instead of replacing Torrey Smith in some other way, and they did it for more than just the UCF product’s long-term upside.

Look, if the Ravens were so worried about Perriman making an immediate impact, then they would have made other moves or upgraded the position in a different way. Instead, they replaced Smith with an even younger and faster option, and based on the fact that it’s essentially a Smith-Perriman swap as the receiver next to Steve Smith Sr., it’s clear to me that the Ravens were looking for a pure playmaker for Joe Flacco.

Oct 25, 2014; Orlando, FL, USA; UCF Knights wide receiver Breshad Perriman (11) celebrates his 54-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter as the Knights beat the Temple Owls 34-14 at Bright House Networks Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

I mean, Torrey Smith was never the best route-runner and had plenty of drops, but he became incredibly valuable for the Ravens offense due to his playmaking ability, fluid athleticism, and underrated ability to catch 11 TD passes in one season (and average more than seven per year in his four seasons with the team).

Due to his size, leaping ability, catch radius, and mind-blowing speed and stop-and-start potential, Perriman is the kind of beastly playmaker who can replace the spark Smith brought to the table for the Baltimore Ravens offense.

He’ll make head-scratching errors, he might rack up drops at a Greg Little-esque rate, and he won’t be as good as either Smith. But if Perriman can use his tools to get open and make enough positive big plays to outweigh the negative ones, then he could be a huge success as a rookie.

With an experienced, solid, and strong-armed QB running the show, Perriman has a huge ceiling as a rookie, even if his floor is low enough that it could cause him to be a No. 4 guy.

But since the Ravens aren’t worried, we shouldn’t be either, unless if Perriman’s questionable mental work before the catch ends up hurting him more than his athletic tools help him get open.

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