Zay Flowers Is Doing Things No Ravens WR Has Done Before. Here's Why:

Let’s take a moment to celebrate what an audacious and stupendous start Ravens receiver Zay Flowers is having to his season – more explosive than any in franchise history – before we allow for the fact that things are about to change.

Flowers has been as impactful as any skill player in the NFL, he has been a total menace to defenses in the three games he has played while hampered with a hamstring injury, and we must also recognize that he only played one half in Week 1, missed Week 2, was on a tight pitch count Week 3 and then lost starting quarterback Lamar Jackson at halftime of Week 4 and the Ravens took the air out of the ball.

It makes what Flowers, signed to a long-term deal before the season, is doing all the more outlandish. But, with Jackson almost certain to miss a week or two (at least) with an ankle injury and the Ravens’ offensive line/blockers beset by injuries, and the run game going backwards and the schedule ramping up, and Flowers the only cog showing up regularly downfield, his pace is about to diminish.

Maintaining his level of explosion over a full season even with Jackson would be pretty remarkable, and the Ravens are going to have to get more creative with him out in space and in the run game and doing things behind the line of scrimmage with back-up QB Snoop Huntley unable to push the ball downfield like Jackson. Rookie coordinator Declan Doyle has done his best work totally unlocking Flowers and making him a threat in every quadrant of the field in ways like never before., and his usage in the slot has been particularly impactful.

“In our offense, he is going to line up at five different positions,” head coach Jesse Minter said Monday. “So, you can have a game plan for him when he is the outside receiver to maybe take him away, or maybe when he is the slot receiver, but then he is ending up as No. 3 a lot.

“He is ending up on linebackers in zone coverages. He is ending up out of the backfield a few times as we have seen this year. So, I think that is 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 to Declan, obviously, moving him around.”

Here’s how he’s done it, and where Flowers ranks among the top receivers in the NFL a month into the season (and, again, he’s only truly completed two contests thus far):

Unstoppable Force

Flowers is second in the NFL, averaging 19.6 yards per reception. He is fourth in the NFL at 117.3 yards per game. He is fifth in Yards After the Catch (165) and would be tops had he not missed so much time and been limited to just 56 routes run this far (less than half of teammate Rashod Bateman, for instance, and well off the volume of other top 10 NFL receivers.

Flowers is third in the NFL catching 78% of his passes for a first down or touchdown and he is in truly rarified air in some of the advanced stats that speak to the downfield impact he is making:

Yards Per Route Run: 6.29 – 1st in NFL (1.41 is NFL avg).

Jaxson Smith-Njigba (SEA) is second among qualified receivers at 4.15, a massive chasm

Yards Per Target: 16.00 – 1st in NFL

Tyquan Thornton (KC) is second at 14.1 yards per target, again, well off this pace

The fact Flowers has twice as many receiving yards as any Raven, and everyone knows where the ball is going if it’s going more than eight yards downfield, and starting receiver Ja’Kobi Lane has barely played due to injury, and no one can intervene, is pretty special.

How’s Doyle Done It?

The most significant change in Flowers’s usage is something we told you was coming in the spring: he is a real dervish when he has a two-way go from the slot and he’s always done his best work in the middle of the field and being deployed more often from the slot plays even more into it.

Flowers has been in the slot 60% of the time this season; it was 37% last season. This has meant everything.

He has 14 catches on 16 targets for 282 yards (20.1/rec!) and a touchdown in the slot this season.

Doyle has also put him motion more than ever (27%, not a huge difference from 23% a year ago) and has already put Flowers in the backfield for four snaps this season; he was positioned there just twice all of last season. Everything about this offense is going to be stripped down without Jackson for however long they are without him, but Flowers is already doing things Ravens receivers simply have not done.

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