He is easily the most fearsome YAC-getter in this class. And this was in the SEC, not some flat-track bully in a lesser division. He was beating the best athletes in the nation with both speed and physicality on a regular basis. Arkansas would put the ball in his hands as much as possible, on both screens and out of the backfield, and let him go to work. The potential with a guy like him lining up on the offense as both a runner, receiver and decoy is mouth-watering.

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.

It is really hard to know what a “Raven” looks like as a wide receiver. Is it a fast, tall guy who can’t catch? We’ve had a lot of those over the years. Is it a fast, smaller guy that we draft in the first round but who doesn’t quite pan out as the number one receiver you would want them to be? I’ve been tempted over my years of doing this to place my “red stars” on many a wide receiver prospect but always struggled to make the final decision to do it. It has certainly taken me longer to hone what I’m looking for at the wide receiver position myself, like the Ravens, I’ve had some glaring misses.

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.

Having said that, as with every single draft year, many receivers have been mocked to us over recent months. Like every year, after I’ve worked through most of my evaluations, I find myself going back to watching potential late first round receivers. From Hakeem Nicks, to Devin Smith to AJ Brown himself, I’ve had my favourites going way back but they read like a crapshoot.

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