Ronnie Perkins (born September 29, 1999) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Early years

Perkins attended Lutheran High School North in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. As a senior in 2017, he was named the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

'' All-Metro football defensive player of the year. He played in the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Perkins committed to the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

to play college football.

College career

As a true freshman at Oklahoma in 2018, Perkins started seven games and recorded 37 tackles and five sacks. He started all 13 games he played in his sophomore year before being suspended for the 2019 Peach Bowl due to a failed drug test. He finished the season with 38 tackles and six sacks. The suspension continued five games into his junior year in 2020.

Professional career

Perkins was drafted by the

in the third round, 96th overall, of the

2021 NFL Draft The 2021 NFL Draft was the 86th National Football League Draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1, 2021 ...

. On July 20, 2021, Perkins signed his four-year rookie contract with New England. After being inactive the first 13 games of the season, he was placed on injured reserve on December 17. On August 23, 2022, Perkins was placed on injured reserve.

References

External links

Oklahoma Sooners bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Ronnie Living people Players of American football from St. Louis American football defensive ends Oklahoma Sooners football players 1999 births New England Patriots players