Breshad Perriman: What went wrong for the 2015 1st Rd. pick

Breshad Perriman came into the NFL as a 1st round draft pick with speed and obvious talent. What went wrong?

The Baltimore Ravens drafted Breshad Perriman with the 27th pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. He was expected to produce as a number one receiver and now he may not even make the team in 2018. Entering his fourth season there are no promises for Perriman. The Ravens opted not to pick up his fifth year option (making him a free agent in 2019) and added five receivers to the roster this offseason.

This is stuff you already knew, but how did Perriman end up in this position? The saga started with Perriman being hurt for the entire 2015 season. This allowed frustration to brew in Baltimore, while the Ravens 1st round pick was sidelined for the entire 5-11 season. Perriman got hurt again in the offseason. It looked like he would miss his second season. Luckily for Perriman, the injury was less severe than initially feared and he got to play in 2016.

Perriman had a solid 2016 season. He caught 33 passes and wound up in the end zone three times for touchdowns. It wasn’t the kind of production the Ravens wanted from a 1st round pick, but it was an okay starting point. After missing his first season and coming on slowly in 2016, Perriman ended the year with the needle moving upward.

Perriman’s problems are not physical:

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Yeah, that didn’t last long. In the 2017 season, Perriman did next to nothing. He had 10 receptions for 77 yards. Perriman struggled to get open. He also struggled to catch the ball. From the looks of it, Perriman suffered from a lack of confidence. Once things started to go downhill, Perriman reached a point of no return.

Perriman was an elite athlete coming into the NFL. He ran a 4.24 second 40 yard dash. Lance Zierlein had Josh Gordon as Perriman’s NFL comparison, in his NFL.com draft profile. That kind of speed with his kind of frame should have led to a good wide receiver. Perriman has the physical attributes to be successful, but those physical attributes don’t mean a thing if he can’t get his mind right.

On a team that was desperate for help at wide receiver, Perriman got benched. That’s platinum level failure. Can Perriman work on things from a technique standpoint? Sure. His route running is horrible and it makes his speed less impressive. However his problems are in his head. How else do you explain an NFL wide receiver dropping wide open passes that hit him right in the hands? That can happen once or twice, even to the best of players, but for Perriman this is a consistent problem.

The injuries gave time for him to get in his head:

The Ravens played a full season before Perriman even got to step on the football field in a game situation. Perriman had a lot of time to get in his head. It probably allowed the pressure of being a number one pick to get to his head. The fanbase was quick to jump on Perriman, I’d imagine that the coaching staff lost patience as well.

The NFL is not known for patience, even with a stable franchise like the Ravens have, Perriman is out of time. He missed his rookie season. He only played decently in the second half of the 2016 season and in 2017 there was no point in having him on the field.

Perriman has the frame and speed to be a dominant wide receiver but he is far from the first talented athlete to fizzle out in the NFL. Perriman had time away from the football field. In addition to it reducing the patience for him to start succeeding, it made every play ultra important to Perriman. I would bet that he began to press; he began to try too hard.

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I’m not in his head, I don’t know what is really going on. It just seems transparent. He has the ability to be a star and he probably never will be. Perriman is an important reminder that football requires more than just physical talent. The wrong mindset can cripple a great athlete’s ability to profit on his talent. That’s what I think happened to Perriman.

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