Who’s the biggest offensive bust in Ravens history?

While listening to 105.7 The Fan the other day in my car, I heard an interesting question from one of the hosts: “Who is the biggest bust in Baltimore Ravens history?” Instead of thinking of the overarching question of the biggest bust on both sides of the football, I thought of the biggest offensive bust.

Some may bring up Breshad Perriman, who has had a disappointing start to his NFL career. Now in his third season, Perriman has played in 24 games, missing his entire rookie season. He has also missed ample time during mini-camps and all three preseasons with two different knee injuries.

In those aforementioned 24 games, Perriman has only made three starts. He had 33 receptions in 2016 for 499 yards and three touchdowns, catching 50 percent of his passes. This year has been horrific for the young receiver, catching just seven passes for 54 yards and no touchdowns. He’s just caught 25.9 percent of his passes.

Before labeling Perriman as the biggest bust in Baltimore history, one has to start the conversation with the granddaddy of all Ravens busts, Travis Taylor. Taylor was a highly touted wide receiver from the University of Florida. While with the Gators, Taylor posted 72 catches for 1150 yards and 15 touchdowns in 27 games. Due to his speed, Baltimore took him in the first round (tenth overall) in the 2000 NFL Draft.

Baltimore was absolutely convinced of his ability and they were mistaken, bamboozled and hoodwinked. Taylor played six seasons with Baltimore, totaling 204 receptions for 2758 yards and 15 touchdowns. When averaging the stats out, it’s 41 receptions for 552 and three touchdowns a season. Not exactly what one should expect from a tenth overall pick.

Another player that is widely talked about as the biggest Ravens bust in history is quarterback Kyle Boller. Boller was prolific passer at Cal, amassing 7980 passing yards, 64 touchdowns and 48 interceptions. Baltimore seemed to glaze over the fact that Boller only completed 47.8 percent of his passes with the Golden Bears and that would carry over to the NFL.

In five seasons with the Ravens, Boller struggled mightily, having a touchdown-to-interception ration of 45-44. He completed just 56.9 percent of his passes for 7846 yards. His passer rating during that time: 71.9. Horrendous isn’t the word for Boller’s play in Baltimore.

When push comes to shove, it’s easy to say that Baltimore has had bad luck at drafting wide receivers because it’s true. Torrey Smith is the only receiver that Baltimore has drafted, that had a good amount of success with the team. You could say that Taylor was the worse pick that the Ravens made to date, but he didn’t set the team back for years.

Boller on the other hand, set the Ravens back for five seasons. He was up and down at the position where a steady hand and surgical precision is needed. Boller was the exact opposite of precise. He consistently tripped over his own feet and was the culmination of the ineptitude at the quarterback position for the Ravens.

During the time that Boller played for Baltimore, the Ravens made the playoffs twice. The second time, he didn’t play for the majority of the season because Steve McNair was Baltimore’s starter. In his rookie season, Baltimore swapped him constantly with Anthony Wright. He passed for 1260 yards, seven touchdowns and nine interceptions in 11 games played. Ouch.

With that being said, it’s very easy to pick the worst offensive draft pick for Baltimore. Boller is your guy.