Baltimore Ravens: Breshad Perriman Hurt, Lardarius Webb Fails Conditioning Test
By Joe Serpico
The Baltimore Ravens opened the 2015 season with their first training camp practice this morning. After just one day of football, there is a lot to talk about regarding John Harbaugh’s team. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad than good already.
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The biggest scare of the morning was seeing the Ravens first-round pick, Breshad Perriman, going off the field with a right knee injury. The prize addition of the offseason went down within the first 15 minutes of his first NFL practice, but was able to walk off under his own power back to the training facility. Everyone in Ravens Nation was holding their breath when they heard the news, but it sounds as though the new playmaker should only be held out of practice for a couple of days.
It’s not serious,” coach John Harbaugh said Thursday. “It’s all sound. He’ll be back as soon as the knee feels a little bit better. It could be as early as tomorrow, or a couple days at most.”
Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun described the play where Perriman went down as possibly his best play of the day. In all, the rookie had a solid first day of practice:
“Perriman’s last play in practice was probably his best of the day. The rookie from Central Florida beat his defender down the sideline and caught a perfectly-arced ball from quarterback Joe Flacco. But he was slow to get up, and with around 20 minutes remaining in practice, was walked into the building by the team’s trainer.
The rookie was active throughout practice, bursting out of routes and showing the easy quickness that caused teammates to rave throughout the summer. He saw the ball well in traffic, as well, with his most significant drop coming in double coverage on a ball he tipped several times but couldn’t control.”
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The other disappointing news was that Lardarius Webb failed his conditioning test and has been placed on the physical unable to perform list for the time being. It’s surprising news that Webb is the cornerback that is being held out, and not Jimmy Smith who is coming off a season-ending foot injury. Webb will have to pass the test before the team lets him practice. Harbaugh stressed his the reasoning for the testing and displeasure that the veteran corner wasn’t ready entering camp.
“The conditioning test measures anaerobic conditioning. It measures the ability to recover, get your heart rate way up and recover,” Harbaugh said. “Webby is in really good shape in a lot of different ways. You can see it in the way he moves. But he’s not in the kind of anaerobic shape he needs to be in to come out here and practice. The idea being that if I go play after play after play, and I begin to get fatigued, and I can’t move the way I need to move, I’m going to have a fatigue type of injury.
“That’s why we don’t allow guys to practice until they’re aerobically in conditioning. He’s a little behind that way, certainly, and he’s going to have to make up the ground.”
Aaron Wilson, formerly of the Baltimore Sun and now with the Houston Chronicle, tweeted out what the Ravens conditioning test consists of:
Ravens' conditioning test: six timed 150-yard runs, 25 yards up, 25 back, 25 up, 25 back, 25 up, 25 back, per run
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) July 30, 2015
Here are some other news and notes from the Ravens first training camp practice:
- Jimmy Smith, C.J. Mosley, Jeremy Zuttah and Ricky Wagner were all in action today. Zuttah and Wagner did not participate in all the first-team reps, but did take part in 11-on-11 drills.
- WRs Michael Campanaro (quad) and Aldrick Robinson (back) were also both back on the practice field after missing time at OTAs. Both are in an uphill battle to make the team.
- Unlike Webb, Terrell Suggs did pass his conditioning test. He does look to be overweight, however, according to sources.
- Buck Allen was catching a lot of passes out of the backfield, which adds to his value in Marc Trestman’s offense.
- Matt Elam is working with the second-team defense behind Kendrick Lewis and Will Hill. The Ravens are hopeful all three players will be able to rotate this season.
- Harbaugh called guard Marshal Yanda “a future Hall of Famer.” The All-Pro guard is in the final year of his contract and the two sides are hoping for an extension.