Football Draft Focus

Player: EJ Perry
School: Brown Bears
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 210 lbs
40 time: 4.5

EJ Perry Strengths

• Touch
• Athletic
• Pocket navigation

What Perry lacks in arm strength (see below), he makes up for in touch. He can put a little zip behind the ball on short and intermediate throws, but he’s at his best when throwing with touch. I don’t think I could put the ball in a better spot sometimes if I walked up to the receiver and handed them the ball directly. On top of that, Perry is pretty athletic. With 4.5 speed he was typically one of the faster players on the field in the Ivy League, and it showed. He would rush for 730 yards and eight touchdowns during 2019. He finished his two seasons with the Bears with 1,132 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing.

What I liked the most though, was how Perry navigated the pocket. He’s listed at 6’2″, but he didn’t look it on the field. So watching him move around the pocket to avoid rushers and find throwing lanes was a delight. EJ easily had the athletic ability to extend plays with his legs if he wanted to. But he didn’t run out of the pocket with a slight bit of pressure. Something that I feel top quarterback prospect Kenny Pickett does too much.

EJ Perry Weaknesses

• Arm Strength
• Turnovers

I haven’t seen tape of him since before this season, but he did have surgery to repair his labrum in his throwing shoulder. Even then he said before the season started that he was pretty much back to full strength. I say this because is overall arm strength isn’t great. He can still get the ball 40 or so yards down the field. But he’s not going to be throwing up 60 yard bombs at the end of regulation. This biggest concern is the turnovers. In 20 career games at Brown, he’s thrown 27 interceptions. I’m going to let my bias show because I like Perry as a prospect. That’s 27 interceptions over 862 pass attempts. That’s an inception percentage of 3.1%. Hall of Famer Brett Favre had an interception rate of 3.3% over his career. Still it’s something that Perry needs to work on.

Draft Thoughts

Perry is one of my favorite quarterback prospects in this years draft. While he isn’t going to hear his name in the first round, or even on Day 2 for that matter, he’s still an interesting prospect. There’s a decent chance he might hear his name called at all. One way or another though, if I’m an NFL GM, I’m finding a way to get this kid on my roster. He’ll need a couple years to do so, but I like him as a developmental prospect.

Perry recently accepted an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl. Hopefully he’ll be able to show improvement on the turnovers during practice week and the game. If he does, look for Perry to start climbing up draft boards.