In the blink of eye, the Baltimore Ravens went from a healthy, promising set of pass catchers to the same thing as last year.
Yet again, the biggest offseason injury news for the Ravens looks to be a Breshad Perriman knee injury. With a reportedly partially torn ACL, Perriman’s 2016 season hopes are not completely gone, but we can go ahead and assume he will not hit the field this year whether he elects for surgery or not.
So where do the Ravens go now? Luckily, this is not a new process, but it is frustrating nonetheless.
The most obvious speed/vertical threat on the roster is veteran Mike Wallace, who appears primed to be one of the focal points of the offense. Besides Wallace, however, the deep-ball options at receiver are thin, save one Ravens rookie.
Fourth-round pick Chris Moore is now set to take on quite the workload in his first year. Without Perriman, Moore looks to be the clear choice for the fourth receiver behind Wallace, Kamar Aiken and Steve Smith Sr. His superior downfield ability to Aiken and Smith Sr. should net him his fair share of targets on long throws from Joe Flacco.
But can Moore be depended on to play a role in Baltimore’s offense this season? His performance at Cincinnati suggests he can.
Like Perriman, Moore is a tall (6’2″), lengthy player who does not present the look of a speedster. But don’t be fooled: Moore can get moving downfield.
Not only does Moore have more than enough speed to be a true vertical threat, he also has natural ball location skills.
Moore leans more toward the mold of Perriman than he does, say, Wallace or a Torrey Smith-type. The latter two use essentially pure speed to get open; the others lean on a combination of speed/ball skills to make receptions in traffic.
This type of playing style blends well with Flacco’s skill set, and Moore can be the contested-catch complement to Wallace’s speed.
Moore’s diverse abilities are essentially what we likely would be seeing out of Perriman.
If both were healthy, Perriman would probably be the better of the two, but unfortunately we may never get to compare the pair of Ravens receivers.
In the meantime, the Ravens need to focus on getting newcomers Moore and Wallace plenty of reps if they want them to step up in Perriman’s absence.
Fourth-round rookie receivers typically do not need to be leaned on in year one, but in Moore’s case, Baltimore will (and should) be getting him on the field early in order to ease the pain of Perriman’s continued absence.
GIFs c/o DraftBreakdown.com
