Baltimore Ravens: Rookies Face Challenge Away from Team

Apr 30, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Breshad Perriman (Central Florida) poses for a photo with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected as the number twenty-six overall pick to the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Ravens’ mandatory minicamp saw the wide receiver battle heat up.

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The last receiver spot was already uncertain, and now with the competition even tighter, things are even more unclear.

The only guarantee right now is Steve Smith Sr. being the number one receiver. Whoever lines up on the other side of the field with him is questionable. However, the best guess still goes to rookie Breshad Perriman.

If the veteran has anything to say about it, he may want these receivers alongside him when the season comes around. Smith posted this picture with Kamar Aiken (11), Marlon Brown (14) and Perriman (18).

Second-year receiver Jeremy Butler looks to find his way onto the 53-man roster. As what has been overly reported, he had a fantastic minicamp where he reportedly didn’t drop a pass. Darren Waller and DeAndre Carter are two other receivers hoping for a roster spot. Training camp will be where the position battles take place in full intensity, but right now, they are falling behind.

Baltimore beat writer Jeff Zrebiec watched the receivers during minicamp. Here’s a series of tweets about what he noticed about them on the field.

Waller cannot afford to be dropping passes when the competition around him is fierce. Especially for the new guys, the long break between the end of minicamp and beginning of training camp is going to play a major factor.

This offseason is the first for the rookies in the NFL, so they have yet to figure out how they will approach it. Perriman has had an impressive minicamp along with Butler. He’s looking at the potential starting role, so he’s hoping he can figure out how to approach this long break without losing anything he has learned headed into training camp.

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This scenario is when the veteran presence of Smith is invaluable. If the young guys know what’s best for them, they would already have received advice from him about how to handle the long break.

Butler who has had an impressive OTAs and minicamp did not have much of a break in between those activities, so it would have been very easy to transition. He may have had a strong OTAs and minicamp, but he has to be able to maintain his momentum throughout the time when the team does not meet.

These initial team activities can only say so much about the team. The beginning of training camp is going to say much more, and most of it is going to come from how the players handle the long break apart from the team.

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