Starring Perryman and Bleacher Report’s Ryan Riddle; co-starring LB Thurston Armbrister (No.34), and featuring RB Ameer Abdullah as “the scene stealer.”
In his return appearance to the RSP Film Room, Ryan Riddle joins me to watch the University of Miami middle linebacker, whose game engendered more questions than answers. Perryman, a short, stout defender at the position has the body type of a player like Stephen Tulloch, but his game doesn’t sustain the pre-draft hype of him as one of the top inside linebackers of this class:
- Too many slow reads and reactions.
- Attacking the wrong shoulder of his opponents in order to stack and shed appropriately.
- Taking questionable angles in pursuit.
- Only flashes of big-play ability.
- The only consistent positive from two games viewed is Perryman’s ability to balance patience with downhill aggression to hit a crease and make a tackle.
- Perryman plays at his best when he has open space to navigate. When he does he looks like the player that matches the hype.
Riddle and I were more impressed with Perryman’s teammate Thurston Armbrister, who was around the ball far more often. Perryman’s play did little to aid Armbrister’s performance. The real star of this show was Nebraska RB Ameer Abduallah, a player Riddle had not seen before this episode, who made a number of impressive runs that displayed vision, eye-popping agility and balance, and bucketfuls of determination. Here’s my analysis of Abdullah at Football Outsiders.
For a complete list of RSP Film Room episodes, check out this page.
For analysis of skill players in this year’s draft class, download the 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio – available now. Better yet, if you’re a fantasy owner the 56-page Post-Draft Add-on comes with the 2012 – 2014 RSPs at no additional charge. Best, yet, 10 percent of every sale is donated to Darkness to Light to combat sexual abuse. You can purchase past editions of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio for just $9.95 apiece.