Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome is asking the same question as fans.
When is wide receiver Breshad Perriman finally going to be ready?
Newsome said he spoke with Ravens trainers and Perriman's surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, Wednesday.
"They expect him to be fully recovered and ready to start this offseason," Newsome happily reported. "Hopefully, he can pick up from where he was that first day of training camp. I really had a smile on my face that first day."
Perriman went down with a PCL knee injury on the first day of training camp. Newsome remembers the exact play vividly.
Baltimore's first-round pick was originally expected to be back soon, but the injury dragged into the regular season and he tweaked it while warming up before the team's Week 3 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Perriman had orthoscopic knee surgery shortly thereafter, but still didn't recover fast enough to get back on the field. He was shut down and placed on injured reserve on Nov. 17 with seven games remaining and him not looking close to being back.
Newsome was asked twice about whether he knew of any knee injury before the Ravens drafted him with the 26th-overall pick.
"No, no, it just happened that day when he fell on it," Newsome said. "I saw when the injury happened. [Perriman] made an incredible catch on the right sideline, and he went to the ground and the knee hit first."
Until that point, Perriman had flashed some of his great potential. He has blazing speed and was making impressive plays in Organized Team Activities and minicamp. Had Perriman stayed healthy, he had a good chance of being the Ravens' Week 1 starter opposite Steve Smith Sr.
That one play on the first day of training camp encapsulated Perriman's rookie season in a nutshell: full of promise, but ultimately snake-bitten.
"I was excited [and thought]: 'He's made another great play down the field; that's what we needed for him to do,'" Newsome said. "You see a guy go to the ground, you really don't think anything happened, but I noticed it took some time for him to get back up."
If Perriman can return healthy and stay that way next season, he'll provide the speed threat on the outside that the Ravens sorely lacked.
Baltimore traded for Chris Givens a quarter of the way through the season, but he posted just 19 catches for 346 yards and one touchdown in 12 games and is now an unrestricted free agent.
