There was plenty of noise when the Baltimore Ravens handed Zay Flowers a five-year, $140 million deal this season. The number alone made the move feel like a statement, especially with only Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ja'Marr Chase, and Drake London earning more at the position. But Flowers has wasted no time making the contract look a lot less controversial.
Even with a hamstring injury forcing him out of Week 2 and limiting his snaps in Week 3, Flowers has put together a start that demands attention. His 352 receiving yards rank seventh in the league, and his 6.29 yards per route run sit second among players with at least 20 routes.
That efficiency matters even more when you remember that 152 players have run more routes than he has. The production has been loud, and the workload has been managed.
A big reason for that surge is the way new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle has deployed him. Flowers is showing up all over the formation, from the backfield to the slot to the outside, and the Ravens are making sure plays are built with him in mind. Todd Monken already did solid work with Flowers, but Doyle has taken the usage to another level and turned it into a weapon.
That creativity showed up early in the season on a Week 1 touchdown, when Flowers lined up in the backfield with Jackson, slipped open on a sharp route, and raced into the end zone. It was a clean example of how Doyle is using Flowers to stress defenses and create headaches for coverage teams.
Jesse Minter also pointed to that versatility when talking about Doyle’s impact.
"Dec does a great job of putting him in different positions," Minter said. "So you can game plan for a guy like Zay, but I also think in our offense, he's going to line up at five different positions.
And so you can have a game plan for him when he's the outside receiver to maybe take him away, or maybe when he's the slot receiver. But then he's ended up as number three a lot.
He's ended up on linebackers in zone coverages. He's ended up out of the backfield a few times, as we've seen this year.
And so I think that's just a credit to Zay to be able to do all that and sort of understand the concepts that he can move around to different spots. And then Declan obviously moving him around."
That kind of deployment makes life miserable for defenses and simple for the Ravens when they want to get the ball to one of their best weapons. Baltimore knows what it wants offensively: feed Derrick Henry and create openings for Lamar Jackson to find Flowers. Doyle has leaned into that idea, and Flowers’ target share has jumped from 11th to fourth as a result.
The scary part for everyone else is that Flowers still hasn’t had a normal game yet. He didn’t play in the second half of Week 1 because of the hamstring injury, but still finished with 150 yards and a touchdown.
He missed Week 2 entirely, then came back in Week 3 and posted 86 yards, including a key catch that helped set up Tyler Loop’s game-winning kick. Then Sunday brought another incomplete look, with Jackson not playing in the second half, yet Flowers still managed 119 yards and a touchdown in the first half.
So the real question is what this looks like when Flowers and Jackson are both fully healthy for a full game. The ceiling is obvious.
Flowers is already in the conversation with Smith-Njigba, Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and the rest of the league’s best, and it would not be shocking if he finished the season leading the NFL in receiving yards. At the very least, top-three feels well within reach, and a 200-yard game somewhere down the road feels possible too.
Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, Flowers looks like a top-10 receiver without much argument. If this start is any sign, he might end up even higher by season’s end.
In Other News...
Ravens Suddenly Have A Tight End Depth Problem To Solve
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Now the Ravens are left leaning harder on rookie tight ends Matthew Hibner and Josh Cuevas, two players who may be asked to handle more than expected as the season moves along. Baltimore could also look outside the building for another veteran option, because the depth chart at tight end suddenly needs a solution, and it needs one quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Sit Atop AFC North But One Concern Wont Go Away
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Even so, the larger concern around the division is how long that cushion can last if Baltimore does not clean up some of the same issues that have followed it into the first month. The Ravens place at the top matters, but so does the fact that every team in the North still has a path to make life difficult over the stretch run. With upcoming games on the schedule, the next few weeks will go a long way toward showing whether Baltimore is truly separating itself or simply holding off a crowded field. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Suddenly Face A Bigger Lamar Jackson Concern Than Expected
Lamar Jacksons sprained ankle has quickly shifted the Ravens attention from a routine midweek injury update to a more immediate quarterback plan for Week 5. Head coach Jesse Minter said the issue is not expected to linger long-term, but Jackson is unlikely to practice this week, leaving Baltimore to prepare as if it may have to get by without its starter against the Atlanta Falcons.
Tyler Huntley is expected to take the first-team reps as the Ravens map out the week, which gives the team at least some stability while Jackson works through the injury. Even with the possibility of a return still hanging out there, the more realistic task now is getting Huntley ready and making sure Baltimore does not lose ground if Jackson is sidelined on Sunday. [Read more 🡒]