Why Drafting Breshad Perriman in 2015 set the Ravens back
Misses in the first round are costly and Breshad Perriman was clearly a miss:
If we have learned anything in the 2017 season, it’s that Breshad Perriman is a bust. In fact he may be the worst big name wide receiver from the 2015 NFL Draft class. Amari Cooper has 193 receptions for 2,685 yards and 14 touchdowns going through his third year in the NFL. He’s clearly the cream of the crop from this draft class. The 2015 draft also saw Nelson Agholor, Devante Parker, Staffon Diggs, Phillip Dorsett and Tyler Lockett come into the NFL. While most of these players aren’t superstars, all of them have achieved more than Perriman.
Perriman missed his entire rookie season. The frustration from this is still palpable in Maryland. In 2016 Perriman only had 33 receptions. He started to come on strong in the second half of the season, so there was real hope that he had figured things out.
Hopes up for nothing:
He didn’t. Perriman regressed. The Ravens drafted a wide receiver in the first round three years ago and have gotten a whopping 40 receptions from him. The Ravens must have thought they were getting a superstar. What the Ravens got was a waste of time and hope.
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The Ravens have been severely set back by this horrible decision from the 2015 draft. The Ravens had a problem at wide receiver going into the 2015 season that Perriman did not alleviate. In 2016 the Ravens had two ageing receivers in Steve Smith Sr. and Mike Wallace doing all the work. In 2017 the Ravens still haven’t solved their receiving woes. Ozzie Newsome banked on Perriman having a breakout year. Maybe the Ravens would have drafted JuJu Smith-Schuster in the second round if they knew Perriman was going to give them seven receptions in nine games. Maybe they would have taken a chance on a receiver later in the draft at the very least.
The Bottom Line:
When Newsome inked Jeremy Maclin to a contract late in the offseason, it wasn’t enough to solve the problem. It just wasn’t. When the 2018 NFL Draft rolls around the wide receiver position will still be the most dire need for the purple and black. When you miss on first round picks, it stings the franchise for years to come. The Ravens keep hoping that Perriman makes their investment worth it.
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They’ve been thinking he would solve their problem and give Joe Flacco a star receiver and it hasn’t worked out. In 2016 we didn’t know what to expect. In 2017 the Ravens shouldn’t have put all their eggs in the Perriman basket. He wasn’t going from 33 receptions and 3 touchdowns to being an elite receiver.