Ravens WR Zay Flowers wants to be more of a deep threat in Year 2

The 2023 first-rounder aims to prove he is just as dangerous vertically as his is working underneath laterally.

There is no denying Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers is the second-most electrifying offensive playmaker on the team with the ball in his hands behind only two-time league MVP-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson after a record-setting rookie season in 2023.

Flowers rewrote franchise record books for first-year pass catchers, finishing first in targets (108), receptions (77) and receiving yards (858), to go along with six touchdowns from scrimmage.

The Ravens and first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken found numerous ways to get the ball to Flowers in space, underneath and at the intermediate level of the field. Not a game went by in which he didn’t juke a defender out of his shoes or make multiple would-be-tacklers miss.

Heading into his second season in the league, an aspect of the offense where Flowers wants to improve and be more involved is the deep passing game. Veteran wideout Odell Beckham Jr. led the team with 16.1 yards per catch and the Ravens selected rookie Devontez Walker in the fourth round because they like the explosive vertical threat capability he brings to the table. Flowers wants to show he can contribute more in that area as well.

“I feel like I can go get them. If they’re in the air, I’ll go get them,” Flowers said. “That’s one of the things I want to improve [upon] to answer your question. I’ll say that’s one of the things just hitting more deep balls. Because that’s what I did in college, so I want to come out and try to hit more this year.”

His 11.1 yards per catch tied for 68th in the league and ranked sixth on the Ravens among players who had at least a dozen targets and receptions. Flowers’ average depth of target as a rookie was 7.9 yards due in large part to the kind of routes he ran and the touches the Ravens manufactured for him behind, at or just past the line of scrimmage.

However, when Flowers did go deep, he made some of the biggest receptions of the season, including catching a 54-yard bomb for a touchdown in the AFC Championship game, hauling in and finishing off a 75-yard catch-run touchdown for his longest play of the season in Week 17 and reeling in a 52-yard dart from Jackson between two defenders in Week 2.

In addition to having more deep shots for him dialed up by Monken or checked into pre-snap, connecting on them more consistently will help him grow in that area of the game which requires improving his chemistry with Jackson.

“[It’s] probably just running more of them and working on them with [Lamar Jackson], and working on them with the group, honestly, because I don’t think we had a lot last year, so we want to come out and improve,” Flowers said.

Becoming more of a vertical threat isn’t the only aspect of his game that the 23-year-old wants to elevate in 2024. As an undersized player, he has always had those who doubt his ability to be a complete receiver or even make it to the highest level of the sport but he has proved them wrong at every turn and wants to continue to do so in his second season and beyond.

“[I want to] take the whole game to the next level, everything from blocking to catching,” Flowers said. “I’m trying to get better at everything, and I’m trying to improve every year and prove all the doubters wrong.”