O me-o, O mi-o, O Cleveland, Ohio. The host of the 2021 NFL Draft. It was certainly no Rocky steps in Philadelphia, or Broadway in Nashville. But someone had to do it, in this strange, beginning-to-be-post-Pandemic world. The mistake on the lake, really no longer refers as accurately to this resurgent city in general, but for this Draft it might apply to the odd decision to place the stage on the lake but in front of a parking lot. They hid it well but you could still see it if you looked hard enough.

We’ve all done it. Ran a mock draft on PFF or The Draft Network, check the predictive board to see which group of players is likely to be taken next, and calculate that we can forego taking that guy we love until the 5th round. We can sit tight at our spots and execute advantageous trades based on the deviation the simulators have baked in, and not worry about other opportunistic teams trading above us to take guys we might potentially like. We are the only team allowed to trade on the board. Maybe we have a go six or seven times, maybe post version 6.2 to twitter as we got Devonta Smith to fall to 27 that time.

What I’m saying is that, if I were the Ravens, and acting as they do hoping for significant value to fall to them at the bottom of the first round, Bateman would fit the bill for me as someone who will likely be head and shoulders above the other options staring them in the face at 27. I would even consider giving up our precious draft capital to go up slightly in the 20s to make sure I get him.

This who’s who of wide receiver busts that fell out of simply looking at top 10 lists on the yards per reception data-point led me to wonder, what the history of the top of this list looked like. That was where I found Breshad Perriman – sitting proudly at the top of the 2014 list.

Oh, how I wish the Ravens challenged themselves with this when they drafted Breshad Perriman in the 1st round all those years ago. I know there were many reasons for his demise in Baltimore, not least John Harbaugh’s frustration with the all-time slowest healing PCL injury