Perriman Out For ’16 Season

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Breshard Perriman has had a tough start to his NFL career.  After being selected in the first round in 2015 out of UCF, Perriman missed all of his rookie campaign with a knee injury.

It appears that it’s likely to happen in his second season as well as he suffered a partially torn ACL during Baltimore’s most recent OTA’s.

The former favorite collegiate target of now Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles has Ravens fans wondering if they’re ever going to get anything out of their first-round pick.

As if his own injury concerns aren’t a big enough concern for Perriman, his father Brett, a former NFL wide receiver with the New Orleans Saints, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins has had some health issues of his own.  The 50-year old had reportedly collapsed due to extremely high blood pressure earlier last week.

It’s tough to imagine the Ravens making much headway on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals considering their injury woes and lackluster offseason.  Quarterback Joe Flacco is coming off a torn ACL of his own and his top three wide receivers are veteran Steve Smith, whose season ended early with a torn achilles, recent journeyman Mike Wallace and another former UCF Knight, Kamar Aiken.

With their biggest free agent acquisition being safety Eric Weddle and offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley through the draft, it’s difficult to imagine Baltimore being particularly competitive with the top two teams in the division.

Patriots Nuggets

Everyone Must Wear Numbers

Always looking for an advantage, the New England Patriots have spent many training camps with their players not wearing any numbers.  We’re not sure exactly what the advantage to that is, or if it’s simply Patriots paranoia but the days of no numbers have come to an abrupt end.

Mike Reiss of ESPN reports that the NFL instituted a new rule requiring all players to wear jersey numbers while on the field for Organized Team Activities and mandatory minicamps. The rule was put in place to make it easier to monitor compliance with rules regarding player practices, including that injured players should not be practicing.

This is the second straight year that the NFL has put in a “numbers oriented rule” involving the Patriots as last year the league changed the rule about ineligible receivers wearing the numbers of eligible receivers after New England used some “trick plays” against the Ravens in the AFC divisional round matchup.

Chandler Jones Is Looking Forward To Opening Day

Always up for some manufactured intrigue, the league office scheduled the New England Patriots home opener against the NFC Finalist Arizona Cardinals.

Making that visit to Foxborough will be former Patriots defensive end Chandler Jones, who was traded to the Cards in the offseason for a second round pick and former first-round pick, Jonathan Cooper.

With one year left on his deal, New England decided to move their best sack man from a year ago with the intentions of maximizing on his value as they weren’t going to tender him a significant offer when his contract is up.  A big part of that decision was likely when Jones found himself at a local police station during the season reportedly delirious.

Still, Jones was upset that he was traded and wants revenge against his former mates.

“When I first found out they were going to be on our schedule, I said that I was going to circle that game in red marker,” Jones said, via ESPN. “It’s Week 1, so that’s even better. The NFL already contacted me and told me I’d probably be miked up for that game. So that will be a fun game to listen to.”

Will he be trying to track down the legendary Tom Brady or will it be youngster Jimmy Garoppolo? Brady had his four-game suspension re-imposed this offseason after losing a court battle after “Deflate-gate.”

It doesn’t matter to Jones who lines up under center for the Pats.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jones said. “Whoever is back there, I’m getting after him, for sure.”

Writing Is On The Wall For Joeckel

The relationship between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Luke Joeckel has been a rocky one. Through the first three years of his career after being selected with the second-overall pick in 2013, the Jags left tackle has been mediocre on a great day.

Obviously mediocre is not what any team is hoping for when they use the second-overall pick on a player.

The team has toed a nice company line on Joeckel through those first three seasons as he was rarely criticized, after it’s been painfully obvious to everyone watching that he gets overpowered far too often.

This offseason the internal tide has seemed to be turning against Joeckel, as the team signed former Pittsburgh Steelers free agent Kelvin Beachum in free agency to a somewhat significant, five-year, $40 million deal.

“He’s just a very good technician, very good pass protector,” Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell said of Beachum. “Great kid, very intelligent and I think his skill set in terms of athleticism, being able to pass protect the speed rushers on the outside. Also, he has a degree of versatility to him, too.”

Where does that leave the Jaguars former second-overall pick?

Fighting for a job, without anymore excuses.

“Right now, it’s very difficult to tell from a football standpoint, outside of just great movement skills, because we’re not playing with pads,” Jaguars offensive line coach Doug Marrone said of Joeckel. “But I will say he’s done everything he can from a physical standpoint. He’s come back heavier, he’s come back stronger without losing any mobility as far as foot speed and what he does. He’s doing everything he can to be the best we can be which we all appreciate. Now it’s just a matter of going out there in training camp and preseason and playing well.”

The Jaguars declined their fifth-year option on Joeckel and it seems more than likely that 2016 will be his last year in teal and black.  It doesn’t appear as if the team would give him the benefit of any doubts in a close competition.

Joeckel has been tested at guard, but a player that has been overpowered at tackle isn’t likely to do much better inside against even stronger guys.

“We’ve been dressing, like everyone in the league, about seven linemen a game,” Marrone said. “You want versatility and we also want to be able to play our best five linemen, whoever that may be.”

Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley expects this to be the most important training camp of Joeckel’s career.

“We’ll see. I really want him to compete,” Bradley said of the former Texas A & M star. “We really want him to compete at tackle. He went in there with the thirds. We do that just to give him a chance to look at it. Just the same thing we do with Josh Wells. We’re just looking to get the best five on the field. I think that when guys have the ability to play both positions – we do that at training camp too – it gives us more flexibility.”

For the first time in his NFL career, it’s up to Joeckel to earn his spot.