PerpleHayze

These are excellent points. For anyone interested in a film breakdown of at least on of Perriman's games, I recommend checking out Matt Waldman's YouTube channel. He did an RSP film room on Perriman recently. He and his guest made many of these same comments. I watched 5 games of Perriman (2013 Louisville; 2014 ECU, BYU, NC St & Penn St) on draftbreakdown and YouTube. In addition to the issues you identified, I noticed he was not targeted much in the red zone. This could've been by design or dictated by coverage, but if you're the top WR on your team, wouldn't they look for you more in the RZ? He has the size to be a good blocker, and does show an ability to mirror and wall off his man, but didn't show a desire to want to dominate his guy. Also, in open field situations when another player had the ball, he didn't seem eager to look for someone to block to help spring his teammates. This is probably not uncommon for college WRs, many are not asked to block very much. On a positive note, he did make big catches to jumpstart his team when they were down. The 2013 game vs Louisville and 2014 vs PSU stand out in that regard. Both catches were on deep routes. I'd say he has build up speed, not necessarily explosive speed. If he gets a free release, he can get deep I a hurry. But I don't think he has as much short area lateral explosiveness. Didn't consistently show 4.2 speed in he games I watched, but he's plenty fast. Once he learns to sink his hips more consistently when making a break, he should be very difficult to stop on comebacks and in breaking routes.

If your standard is where he was drafted, then I think you can make a legit case for him being a bust. But if you go back and watch how he played at Florida, I say he's playing the same way. He was physical and aggressive but struggled in man coverage and had a tendency to go for kill shots as opposed to wrapping guys up and making solid tackles. He's the same guy. I think he can be effective if put in position to maximize his strengths. He's an in the box type of guy and plays his best in coverage when he's in zone with receivers in front of him. His tackling and pursuit angles were issues in college and still are, so he has to improve there. He has the physical traits (aside from ideal height) to play in the NFL. I'd argue he was over drafted based on his play in college as opposed to being a bust. The Ravens may have strayed from their BPA philosophy and reached for Elam (think he was 32nd pick in the 1st round) out of need at the position or the depth of safeties in that year's draft.. He was probably a mid-2nd to early 3rd round type of pick based on his play. Of course I'm saying all this in hindsight, but I remember Dan Bryden writing an article pointing out some of these issues when Elam was drafted.