The Ravens have a confusing number of tight ends, with Benjamin Watson, Maxx Williams, Crockett Gillmore, Nick Boyle and maybe Dennis Pitta all vying for snaps at the position. Maybe they should convert one of them to wide receiver, because they look awfully thin there.
Breshad Perriman, who missed all of his rookie with season with a torn PCL, suffered a partially torn ACL yesterday. No timetable for his recovery was announced, but any injury that includes the words "torn ACL" is typically a season-ender. Doesn't seem likely we find out if last year's first-round pick can play in the NFL before 2017, at which point he'll have been on the shelf for two full seasons.
Steve Smith Sr. is one of my favorite players of all time, NFL or fantasy, but he's 37 years old and coming off an Achilles injury that most young players never recover from. I won't bet against him, but tough to see him being the same player.
Next men up? Mike Wallace, Kamar Aiken, and maybe fourth-rounder Chris Moore. Wallace and Aiken, certainly, should be 2 of the top 3 targets, with Moore a candidate to contribute if he develops quickly.
Another possibility I'll throw into the mix is Jeremy Butler. He caught 31 passes in the final eight games a year ago, including 19 for 227 in the final four games. If he'd done that for a full season he'd have approached 1,000 yards.
Butler is overlooked in large part because he's a former undrafted free agent whose production last year was in large part because the Ravens had literally nobody else available to catch passes. No Smith Sr., no Perriman, just Aiken and Butler and some warm bodies no longer with the team.
Not sure anybody should be excited about any of these wideouts, but with Perriman likely done and Smith Sr. somewhat uncertain to be his old/young self, Joe Flacco's going to need to throw it to someone.
--Andy Richardson