The Ravens are building something bigger than a single “Joker” role in Declan Doyle’s new offense. The idea, borrowed heavily from Sean Payton’s NFL playbook, usually points to a tight end type who can line up in a few spots and handle carries, catches and mismatches. But the version Doyle is installing looks broader than that.
This system is chasing versatility everywhere. Doyle brings ideas from his time with Payton in New Orleans and Denver, plus what he picked up under Ben Johnson in Chicago and from coaches like Sean McVay. The goal is to stock the offense with players who can think and function in more than one role, which makes the whole thing harder to defend and harder to sort out.
Zay Flowers sounded like a player already feeling that shift after practice Thursday.
“Everybody has been touching the ball,” Flowers explained. “Everybody has been everywhere.
Everybody is getting used to every position. Everybody is positionless.
Everybody can play every spot - inside; outside - sometimes the receivers are playing the tight end position, so you never know."
That’s the shape of it: Jokers everywhere, and not all of them built the same way.
Sean Payton, for one, made a strong case on “The Daily Flock Show” that rookie fifth-round pick Adam Randall fits the Joker mold as the bigger-bodied version. Tight end Matthew Hibner, another late-round pick, is more of a big receiver than a true tight end, even though he’s listed there. And Elijah Sarratt looks like a player who could handle plenty of slot tight end work because of his frame and the hybrid traits that have shown up in players such as Jordy Nelson and Cooper Kupp in other offenses.
That kind of roster building has been a clear theme. The Ravens have been collecting players who can fill multiple jobs, and that should make Doyle’s life easier as he installs his first offense and calls plays for the first time. The more roles he can trust from the same player, the more flexibility he gets on game day.
Flowers is a huge part of that plan, too.
Even after a career year, he remains the offense’s most dynamic pass catcher, and the Ravens need more from him than they got last season. Balance matters, and he can’t be carrying the passing game by 800 receiving yards again in 2026. But there are obvious ways to move him around, create better matchups and get him the ball in places he hasn’t been featured much before.
“This offense allows me to do everything - deep balls, short routes, mid-routes, everything,” Flowers said. “Touch the ball coming out of the backfield - everything. So, it allows me to show everything I need to show."
He’s already at his best working crossers and piling up YAC over the middle, especially when plays break down. What he hasn’t been is a classic outside No. 1 receiver, and the Ravens know that. Still, there’s room to use him more on the perimeter and especially in the red zone and end zone, where the numbers have been rough.
A big part of that starts with movement. Flowers was in motion on 23% of his snaps last season under Todd Monken, which was among the highest rates in the league, though it dipped from 25% the year before.
He also lined up in the slot only about a third of the time. That could change now with more bigger bodies around him.
The slot has been productive for him. He caught 80% of his targets there and doubled his yards after catch per reception to 7.5 from that alignment. The tradeoff is obvious, though: more traffic means more chances for fumbles.
For now, this is still early camp, and the full version of the offense won’t really show up until the regular season. The spring work gave the players a taste, but the real details are still ahead. Lamar Jackson is learning a completely new system, and Flowers said the language itself is a major reset.
"No, it is back to square one,” Flowers said. “It is a whole lot different in terms of calling the plays, the name of the plays and remembering. It is a lot different.”
The multiple-Joker concept is new, too. If the Ravens can get all those moving parts to click, it could be a dangerous wrinkle in Doyle’s offense.
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That shift could matter just as much in how the Ravens operate before the snap. Doyle is expected to mix tempo, cadence and personnel more aggressively, which would be a noticeable change for a group that spent much of last season in the gun and too often settled into a predictable rhythm. The bigger question is whether Baltimore has enough receiving balance right now to make those wrinkles count, or whether the offense is still waiting on another pass catcher to emerge. [Read more 🡒]