Flowers instantly became Baltimore's No. 1 receiver after going 22nd overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, drawing 108 targets in 2023 and 116 in 2024 despite playing in a run-heavy offense. His usage changed somewhat between Years 1 and 2, with Flowers finding more success downfield in his second season -- his aDOT rose from 8.4 to 10.3 and his yards per catch from 11.1 to 14.3, while his catch rate dropped from 71.3 percent to 63.8 percent. Ravens OC Todd Monken likes to give Flowers manufactured touches on screens and jet-sweeps, but Flowers' 4.42 speed seems better put to use creating separation on deep and intermediate routes. He's been especially effective with the latter, catching 36 of 53 career targets in the range of 10-19 yards downfield (for 561 yards and five TDs). That's also been Lamar Jackson's consistent strong suit, whereas his deep-passing numbers have varied from year to year. Promising as that may sound, Flowers is still in a run-heavy offense and will still have sturdy competition for intermediate targets from TEs Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely as well as WR Rashod Bateman. With Flowers looking the part of a good player more so than a truly great one, the likely outcome for 2025 is another season with 6-7 targets per game and above-average efficiency, perhaps progressing from WR3 fantasy territory to low-end WR2 status if he can pluck a couple more TDs away from Andrews/Likely/Bateman and RB Derrick Henry.
