Bryce Perkins points out where he can improve after breakout performance vs. Raiders

[theramswire.usatoday.com]

Bryce Perkins points out where he can improve after breakout performance vs. Raiders

Cameron DaSilva
August 22, 2021 12:00 pm PT

Bryce Perkins didn’t take the field in a single game as a rookie last year due to the preseason being canceled. He practiced plenty as a member of the practice squad, but there’s no replacing actual game reps during training camp.

But despite nearly a two-year layoff between games for Perkins dating back to his college days at Virginia, he looked extremely comfortable during the Rams’ game against the Raiders on Saturday night – his second preseason game of the year.


Perkins played every single snap and has seemingly pulled ahead of Devlin Hodges as the No. 3 quarterback and while the original plan wasn’t to play Perkins the whole game, he made enough of an impression to earn an extended look from Sean McVay and the coaching staff.

He completed 26 of 39 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns, with his only glaring mistake being a deep ball to Tutu Atwell, who was triple-covered. Perkins added 41 yards rushing on nine carries, the best of which was on fourth down late in the game.

He liked the way he played against Vegas but still doesn’t feel it was a perfect performance.

“It was pretty solid,” Perkins said. “Love to clean up some of the mistakes I had early on and throughout the game, but Coach did a great job of – coaches and the players really kind of put it on ourselves to kind of look past the mistakes. Mistakes happen and we did a great job of next play mentality and just came up short. But a lot of those early mistakes can prevent that situation from happening. But lots to learn from. A lot of good, lot to learn, lot of bad…not a lot of bad but some things to fix up here and we’ll be in good shape.”

When asked what he feels he can improve, Perkins pointed to a couple of things, which shows just how aware and intelligent he is as a quarterback. Despite earning praise from McVay for going through his progressions, Perkins was critical of himself for not getting off his first read quickly enough.

He also mentioned escaping the pocket too quickly, which can be a tendency of mobile quarterbacks.

“Yeah, I mean, sometimes I get hung up on that first read and also kind of just leaving early,” he said. “Got to clean up the trying to escape too quick without – the line did a great job tonight and a couple of those plays where I escaped I could have stayed in and kind of read through the progression. So things like that. And just clean up protection. Being faster, faster, faster, so we’re not too down on the play clock like we were on some of the plays.”

Whether Perkins gets another long look next week against the Broncos in the preseason finale or if there’s an even split with Hodges is uncertain right now, but regardless, Perkins has shown he belongs in the NFL and is making a push to stick around on the Rams’ 53-man roster.