Zay Flowers advises potential first round target for Ravens

The Pro Bowl wide receiver is one of a handful of current players who have reached out to Boston College pass rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku.

The pre-draft process is part of the most grueling and longest years for young players entering the NFL as prospects. They go from ending their college seasons to bowl games and straight into all-star events for upperclassmen.

Once they’ve donned their schools’ helmets for the last time, they have to prepare for and participate in the NFL Scouting Combine, both local and school Pro Days and fly all over the country on private visits and workouts before even getting drafted, which is when the real work begins.

Having close friends and former teammates who have recently been through the process are valuable resources for NFL hopefuls to lean on and turn to during this time. Baltimore Ravens Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers has been one of those assets for his former Boston College teammate Donovan Ezeiruaku who is one of the top edge rusher prospects in a loaded 2025 class.

“I’ve talked to Zay for sure, and Zion [Johnson], Christian Mahogany, and Elijah Jones,” Ezeiruaku said Wednesday at the 2025 NFL Combine. “They pretty much told me this is a time to lock in. Take these couple months, and it will go by fast, but it’s going to be the longest year of your life essentially because you’re coming from a season and then into this season and then minicamp, OTAs, things like that. Just enjoy it, though, at the same time.”

Flowers and Ezeiruaku played together for two years including their breakout seasons in 2022. As a senior, Flowers led the Eagles in receiving yards(1,077) and touchdowns (12) while Ezeiruaku finished first sacks (8.5) and tackles for loss (15) as a sophomore. After his production dropped as a junior to less than half of those figures—two sacks and seven tackles for loss—Ezeiruaku posted monster numbers as a senior, finishing second in the nation and first in the Power Four conferences with a career-high 16.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss.

The Ravens are slated to bring back their entire outside linebacker depth chart from last season including a pair of players at the position who recorded 10-plus sacks in Kyle Van Noy (12.5) and Odafe Oweh (10). While adding another pass rusher high in the draft to a defense that finished second in the league in sacks with 54 doesn’t seem like it should be among the team’s top priorities, Ravens’ general manager Eric DeCosta isn’t ruling out taking one in the first round at No. 27 overall.

“It really comes down to the best player at the time. We’re always going to say that,” DeCosta said Tuesday. “It’s something that we’ve said every single year, starting back to 1996 with Ozzie as the GM. We’re going to draft the best available player, so if we’re picking at [No.] 27, and there is an edge rusher, and he is the best guy, we’re probably going to pick him. That’s going to hold through with every round. It’s an important position.

“We were maybe second in the league in sacks last year, but having a continuous influx of young pass rush talent – guys that can set the edge and play the run, guys that play like Ravens, physical players who can get to the quarterback – that’s a priority for us, for sure.”

Ezeiruaku has been linked to the Ravens in several mock drafts as a potential option for them in the first round come late April. His projected range has been as high as the mid-to-late first round and as low as the late first or early second round. To hear his name called on the first night of the 2025 NFL Draft as Flowers did in 2023 would mean the world to the polished All-American pass rusher.

“It would be important. Obviously, a dream come true,” Ezeiruaku said. “Something that I’ve been wanting to do since I was seven years old playing this game. At the end of the day, it’s on God’s timing. I can’t really control that. I got to do what I can do, control what I can control.”

This week will be the second extended look the Ravens will get at Ezeiruaku during this pre-draft process. Their first came down in Mobile, Alabama at the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl, an annual all-star event they historically love to take prospects from, especially when it comes to edge rushers including in each of the last two years. He had a strong showing there and has the production, pedigree and athletic profile the Ravens love.

During Thursday’s athletic testing and on-field drills, Ezeiruaku performed well in both areas, recording the fastest times among edge prospects in the three-cone (6.94) and 20-yard shuttle (4.19) as well as the sixth-best vertical leap (35.5) and the eighth-best board jump (9-foot-11). Given what he put on tape and backed up with his testing in everything but the 40-yard dash which he elected not to run, he might be a virtual lock to come off the board in the first round whether it’s to Baltimore or sooner.