Wide receiver Breshad Perriman’s future was in doubt long before the Ravens declined to pick up their fifth-year option on the former first-round pick this week.
According to NFL Network, Baltimore will not exercise its option on Perriman, which would have paid him $9.387 million for the 2019 season. That decision was hardly a shock with the 2015 first-round pick coming off an abysmal season in which he caught only 10 passes for 77 yards on 34 targets. Pro Football Focus graded the 24-year-old last among 116 qualified wide receivers in 2017.
What remains to be seen is whether Perriman will even make the team this fall after being a healthy scratch in four of the final seven games of 2017. General manager Ozzie Newsome has revamped the wide receiver group this offseason by signing veterans Michael Crabtree, John Brown, and Willie Snead and taking two wide receivers — Jaleel Scott and Jordan Lasley — on the final day of last week’s draft. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, Perriman is owed a $649,485 bonus on the third day of training camp, which could prompt an early-summer departure if he doesn’t show dramatic improvement this spring.
The Ravens can save $1.622 million in salary cap space by cutting Perriman.
Injuries have played a substantial part in his disappointing career as he missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury, was sidelined for most of the 2016 preseason with another knee injury, and missed substantial time with a hamstring injury last summer. However, his on-field regression in 2017 was alarming after he had at least been a functional contributor in 2016 with 33 catches for 499 yards and three touchdowns in 16 games.
Perriman is the only wide receiver to be drafted by the Ravens on Day 1 or Day 2 in their last seven drafts, a big reason why the organization has found itself in poor shape at the position on a near-annual basis.
