When do the Ravens’ receiver problems fall on Bobby Engram?
By Joe Schiller
The Baltimore Ravens are terrible at drafting wide receivers but they aren’t any better at developing them either.
As the Baltimore Ravens continue their struggles this season, the obvious weak link on the offense is the wide receiver position. The Ravens currently have the second-worst passing attack this season averaging just 165.7 yards a game.
Fans and critics alike are becoming more and more frustrated with the lack of production in the passing game. The blame falls on Joe Flacco under center, Marty Mornhinweg as the offensive coordinator and even Ozzie Newsome as the general manager, but when does the blame start to fall on wide receiver coach Bobby Engram? As terrible as the Ravens have been at drafting wide receivers, they are just as bad at developing them.
Since Engram became receivers coach in 2014, the Ravens have drafted five receivers: Michael Campanaro, Breshad Perriman, Darren Waller, Chris Moore and Keenan Reynolds. They also brought along the likes of Chris Matthews and a couple of talented undrafted rookies this season. Take away Waller and Reynolds and that leaves three capable young receivers, or so we thought. A first-round, third-round and seventh-round pick. When you look at these three, there seems to be a common theme, none have lived up to their expectations.
Injuries have certainly played a part but the young receivers aren’t developing like they should be, Perriman and Moore especially. Perriman has been an absolute bust. In his third season, he still doesn’t have any confidence and can’t catch the football. At this point, the Ravens are better off leaving him as a healthy scratch this season. Speaking of healthy scratches, that’s been Chris Moore’s mantra this season. When you draft a receiver in the third round you expect him to produce. All Moore has given the Ravens is 13 catches for 142 yards and one touchdown through two seasons.
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Now I’m not here to defend Ozzie Newsome because he definitely deserves a lot of the blame, but Engram deserves a good chunk as well. We see plenty of teams develop first and mid-round talents into productive receivers. And that’s the thing, the Ravens don’t even need a player like Moore to be a superstar. That’s why they went and got Mike Wallace and Jeremy Maclin in free agency. But with those two hovering around the age of 30, they aren’t the long-term solutions and when they’re gone in the next few years, who is the future of the receiving core for the Ravens?You couldn’t point to a single player and that’s a problem.
The bottom line
The receiver problem has to come full circle. There are a number of factors involved in the blame and Engram has to be in the conversation. Maybe it’s time to take in consider a change at the position. Look what happened when the Ravens got rid of Juan Castillo and brought in Joe D’Alessandris as well as Greg Roman. The run game is a top-ten unit with Alex Collins leading the way.
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It’s no secret that the players are the ones who go out and produce on the field, but they can’t get better without the proper coaching. I’m just saying, it’s time to really take a look at how the Ravens are developing their receivers.