At this point it looks safe to put Steve Smith’s retirement in ink. He’s signed a deal to serve as an analyst on the NFL Network, and he says his playing days are over. With that in mind, it makes some sense to ponder if there’s a breakout-type receiver on Baltimore’s roster.
Mike Wallace deserves some consideration. He had a pair of seasons with close to 1,200 yards in Pittsburgh. He’s had 10-touchdown seasons with the Steelers and Dolphins. He’s 30, but he can still run.
Removing the considerable shadow of Steve Smith – who tends to command the ball and dominate an offense – should help. Wallace finished last year with 72 catches, 1,017 yards and 4 TDs, and he went on a nice little run when Smith was injured. In those three games, he caught 21 passes for 280 yards.
They’ve also got Breshad Perriman, the former first-round pick who missed all of his rookie season. He’s got great physical ability – he’s 6-foot-2 and 212 pounds, and he reportedly ran a 4.25 at his pro day two years ago. He’s not actually that fast, but with his size and burst, there’s some potential for him to make big plays downfield.
Perriman didn’t knock it out of the park in his second year, but in a reserve role he started making some impact plays. In the second half of the season, in fact, he had more gotcha plays than either Wallace or Smith – 3 TDs, plus 47- and 39-yard catches downfield.
| PERRIMAN'S GAME LOGS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Rec | Yds | TD | Notable |
| Buff. | 1 | 35 | 0 | 35-yard long |
| at Clev. | 2 | 32 | 0 | 20-yard long |
| at Jac. | 2 | 22 | 0 | |
| Oak. | 3 | 24 | 0 | |
| Wash. | 2 | 11 | 0 | |
| at NYG | 3 | 48 | 0 | 41-yard catch |
| at NYJ | 1 | 11 | 0 | |
| Pitt. | 3 | 33 | 0 | |
| Clev. | 3 | 64 | 1 | 27-yard TD |
| at Dall. | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cin. | 1 | 14 | 1 | 14-yard TD |
| Mia. | 2 | 59 | 1 | 53-yard TD |
| at N.E. | 3 | 52 | 0 | 47 long |
| Phil. | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| at Pitt. | 3 | 32 | 0 | |
| at Cin. | 4 | 62 | 0 | 39-yard long |
Now they’ll put him in the starting lineup and give him the chance to do a lot more. There’s some upside there (though if I had to pick one right now, I would probably guess Wallace will put better numbers in 2017).
Working against both of these guys is the reality that Joe Flacco has never shown much ability to consistently get the ball in the end zone. He’s been on good teams with reasonable talent around him, but he just doesn’t tend to throw many touchdowns. He’s oddly thrown multiple TDs in eight straight playoff games, a record, but he’s thrown only 20, 22, 19, 27 and 20 TD passes in his last five full seasons. He was on pace for another one of those years in 2015, with 14 TDs in 10 games, before tearing his ACL.
—Ian Allan