The NFL preseason is officially over, and that means it’s time for a lot of unpleasant conversations around the league — as all 32 teams work to cut down their rosters from 80 men to the mandatory count of 53 before the deadline on Tuesday. There will be many notable names being cut loose in the next day or so, and Brashad Perriman is reportedly one of them. The former first-round pick has been released by the Detroit Lions, per Adam Schefter of ESPN, sending him back into free agency only months after having exited it. Perriman signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Lions this past March, but there are a couple of things that make this move an unexpected one.
First, albeit only a one-year deal, the Lions guaranteed Perriman $2 million of his $2.5 million contract, so releasing him means they’ll have to eat the $2 million as dead money against their salary cap. Second, it’s not as if the Lions are overrun with talent on their WR depth chart, which means Perriman struggled to outshine both veterans and incoming rookies in training camp and preseason.
The latter is certainly true, considering the 27-year-old was only able to muster one catch for six yards total in his two preseason games with the Lions — on a combined five targets. That’s simply not what the Lions signed on for, and the promise of other receivers in the unit ultimately made the Lions comfortable with eating $2 million to send Perriman on his way.
The 26th-overall pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2015, Perriman has been an NFL journeyman since 2018, having signed with the Washington Football Team that year after being released by the Ravens. His stay in Washington was the first of several brief stints with clubs, having been waived five days after joining the organization in mid-September. He’d then join the Cleveland Browns that October and finish the season with 340 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 16 catches, but was forced back into free agency when the Browns didn’t re-up. Then came stays with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019 on a one-year deal worth $4 million, followed by another one-year contract in 2020, this time with the New York Jets for upwards of $8 million with $6 million guaranteed.
He’d go on to put up career numbers with the Buccaneers — to the tune of 645 receiving yards and six touchdowns — followed by a solid statistical year with the Jets, which he then parlayed into the aforementioned deal with the Lions that has now come to its conclusion. As has been the case in his past, it’s likely Perriman lands a seat with a WR-needy team soon, and his asking price shouldn’t be too high, considering he’s leaving Detroit with $2 million for his summer visit.
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