Edge rusher Ronnie Perkins has had a rough go of it during his first four seasons in the NFL after being a third-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2021.
However, Perkins was front and center this week in practice for the Arizona Cardinals only 21 days after being signed to the practice squad. He was wearing No. 40 as the scout team player of the week for his work leading up to last Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears.
“It’s a great feeling,” Perkins said. “I’m still kinda the new guy. I’ve only been here for three weeks now. I missed the whole training camp (in Denver) with an injury, so just getting back to football. But it feels good to earn that with a new team, for the coaches to notice the work I’m putting in, for my teammates to notice the work I’m putting in.”
Head coach Jonathan Gannon said Perkins “had a really good week last week. Rushed really well, played the run game really well and gave us a really good look. First play of the game, sure enough, something that he didn’t practice, they do the exact same thing first play of the game, and it looked the same; which is good. He’s done a good job.”
Perkins said he knew a lot about Tillman before arriving in Arizona.
He said, “I’m a huge football guy. I was always around it, always watched it, so I knew a lot about Pat before I came here. Every time 9/11 rolls around, the Pat story goes around a lot, so I knew about Pat Tillman pretty much since my childhood. Just to be able share his jersey with him, share his number with him, it’s like an incredible feeling.”
Players compete for the award each week and Perkins said once he learned about the award, “it was definitely one of my goals. I told JG earlier, ‘I want it again next week.’ I got it now and the plan is not to let it get away from me. Just keep working, keep doing what I’m doing. Try to get the guys prepared for Sunday.”
Making it even more worthwhile is that it came in the week that the NFL is celebrating Veterans Day as well as the 48th anniversary of Tillman’s birth being Nov. 6 and ESPN broadcasting a show about his story Thursday.
“That definitely makes it more special,” Perkins said Thursday. “I found out yesterday it was his birthday, the first practice of the week. It lit a fire under me, feeling some magical powers wearing his number on his birthday. It’s just giving me more motivation to go out there, go hard playing in his name and his number. It’s definitely an honor. I just want to go out there, make him proud as he is watching down on the Cardinals from heaven.”
Asked for his reaction after finding out last Saturday he had won the award, Perkins said, “I’m gonna be real. J.O. Jr. (Julian Okwara), he turned around and looked at me like I was so shocked. He looked at my face and it was like, ‘Why you looking so shocked.’”
Perkins admitted, “If you ask me, I still haven’t put my best stuff on film yet. I am doing some good things. I don’t want to discredit myself, but I was shocked because I still feel like I got a long ways to go. Like I said, I missed out on training camp and the preseason, so trying to just figure back out some football stuff. But it was a great feeling for the coaches to recognize me; they feel like I did a great job of helping the team out last week.”
Missing time unfortunately has been a large part of his first three-plus seasons in the NFL.
In his rookie year, Perkins was inactive for 13 games and then ended the season on injured reserve. The entire 2022 season was also spent on IR. Waived by the Patriots on Aug. 29, 2023, he was signed to their practice squad, but was then signed to the active roster by the Broncos where new Cardinal Baron Browning was also an edge rusher.
He played in seven games that season, but this past summer was placed on injured reserve on Aug. 7 and waived Sept. 17 before coming to the Cardinals a month later.
Perkins hopes he gets more opportunities to show the coaching staff what he can do.
He said, “Every week I go home, watch the film, figure out where I need to get better and next week I come in and attack that. I feel like in these last two weeks, every full padded practice, every hard practice, I’ve gotten better and I’ve progressed a lot. I still feel I’m not where I wanna be, but I feel like I’ll get there.”
In the true spirit of Pat Tillman.
2024 Pat Tillman Scout-Team Award Winners
Week 1: RB Michael Carter (practice squad)
Week 2: LB Markus Bailey (practice squad)
Week 3: WR Andre Baccellia (practice squad)
Week 4: OL Jon Gaines II
Week 5: WR Xavier Weaver
Week 6: DL P.J. Mustipher (practice squad)
Week 7: S Joey Blount
Week 8: WR Chris Moore (practice squad)
Week 9: OLB Ronnie Perkins (practice squad)
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