Zay Flowers Is Playing, and the Ravens' 26 Handoffs Are the Story
Zay Flowers is active for Baltimore against Dallas in Rio de Janeiro, cleared after a pregame workout convinced the Ravens his hamstring could take a game-speed rep. ESPN reported the green light Sunday, closing out a week that ran all the way to a game-time decision for a receiver who sat out Week 2 against New Orleans.
That's the news. The box score is the argument.
Lamar Jackson went 15-of-20 for 186 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, a 136.7 rating. Flowers caught 5 of his 6 targets for 84 yards and took one carry 20 yards. Derrick Henry ran 26 times for 89 yards and two scores, 3.4 a carry. The receiving touchdowns went to Matthew Hibner and Chris Moore.
Read that last sentence twice. Baltimore threw 20 passes, completed them to seven different players, and the scoring catches belonged to a tight end and a depth receiver. Flowers was the connective tissue here, 45 percent of the passing yards, not the finisher.
The consensus says his return is a massive boost to this offense. Fair enough. He's the only Ravens receiver who consistently wins against man coverage, and the difference between Jackson with him and the Week 2 offense without him is the entire case.
Here's the counter. If Baltimore is content to call 26 handoffs at 3.4 yards a pop and let its quarterback throw 20 times, Flowers is a luxury item with a fragile hamstring, not a foundation. The offense that produced a 136.7 passer rating didn't need him to score. It needed him to move chains, and six targets for 84 yards did exactly that.
Which raises the question the Ravens answered Sunday and will have to answer again in October: how much weekly risk do you accept on a receiver whose value depends on your willingness to throw? Baltimore hasn't shown much appetite for a 35-attempt game. Flowers is worth the target share anyway, because the alternative is Rashod Bateman and Devontez Walker against a defense that knows what's coming.
My verdict: playing him was correct, and it should never have been this close. But this is a team built to win without its WR1, and Flowers' hamstring is a coin flip the Ravens have decided they can afford to take. I'd bet they keep taking it. I'd also bet it costs them a game before December.
