Zay Flowers

The Ravens took Flowers with the 22nd pick in the 2023 Draft and immediately installed him as their No. 1 receiver. He got double-digit targets in three of his first five games, consistently playing more than three-fourths of snaps in non-blowout situations and drawing just one fewer target than TE Mark Andrews in the nine full games they played together Weeks 2-10. The rookie finished at 77-858-5 on 108 targets, with a 71.3 percent catch rate, 11.1 yards per catch and 7.9 yards per target. It helped that Flowers was force-fed a bunch of screens -- 27 percent of his targets were behind the line of scrimmage -- but he also got 20 percent of his targets 20-plus yards downfield and went 9-of-21 for 333 yards (two TDS) on those passes. The only thing missing was intermediate targets, though Flowers at least was efficient on his limited chances 10-to-19 yards downfield, catching 12 of 16 for 162 yards and two TDs. The immediate contribution perhaps shouldn't have been surprising given that Flowers was a four-year contributor at Boston College, where he played in bad offenses every year but nonetheless finished with 3,056 career receiving yards, including 1,077 and 12 TDs his final season. Of course, it's impossible to mention his rookie season without acknowledging a 15-yard taunting penalty and subsequent goal-line fumble in the AFC Championship Game, even if he was otherwise Baltimore's best player on offense (5-115-1) that day. Flowers and Andrews will be QB Lamar Jackson's main guys again in 2024, with WR Rashod Bateman and TE Isaiah Likely as ancillary targets in an offense that always runs the ball a lot and figures to continue doing so after the signing of RB Derrick Henry,

Flowers was the third of four consecutive WRs drafted in the first round this April, going one pick ahead of Jordan Addison and right after Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Quentin Johnston. The Boston College product had a prolific college career in subpar-to-mediocre offenses, with a 78-1,077-12 receiving line his senior season giving him totals of 3,056 yards and 29 TDs in four years. Flowers then showed reasonably well at the 2023 combine with a 4.42 40, 127-inch broad jump and 35.5-inch vertical, at 5-9, 182. The downside, apart from his size, is that he turns 23 in September and never topped 9.0 YPT or a 60 percent catch rate in any of his seasons at BC. Flowers also appears to have sturdy target competition in Baltimore, where Rashod Bateman is coming back from a foot injury, Odell Beckham signed an $18 million contract and TE Mark Andrews remains a threat to lead the team in receiving. The Ravens did (finally) manage to re-sign Lamar Jackson, and their offense will almost certainly lean more toward the pass under new OC Todd Monken. Still, there's major potential for a slow rookie season, especially if Flowers is mostly restricted to the slot in an offense that has a quality fullback (Pat Ricard) and second TE (Isaiah Likely), thereby reducing the chances of heavy three-wide usage.