Baltimore Ravens Pro Bowl receiver Zay Flowers will officially miss the team’s AFC Wild Card Round game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night with a knee injury.
Baltimore was already thin at receiver after midseason trade acquisition Diontae Johnson only logged a single catch for the team. Now, coach John Harbaugh announced former first-round pick Rashod Bateman will be “WR1” this weekend.
“It’s not a season-ending injury,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said on Monday, prompting hope that Flowers can return before the end of the postseason. “So it’s just going to be day-to-day, try to do everything he can do to get back as soon as he can, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Baltimore drafted Flowers in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. He improved upon his 858 receiving yards from his rookie season with 1,059 in 2024 for the first-place Ravens.
“He’ll get started again next week,” Harbaugh said of Flowers on Thursday. “We’ll move forward with the guys we have and we’re excited about the guys we have – which is everybody else.”
Flowers was hurt in the second quarter of Baltimore’s Week 18 win over the Cleveland Browns after completing a 12-yard catch.
Ravens trainers attend to an injured Flowers in Week 18 ( Image: Getty Images)
He was tackled innocuously by Cleveland before Mohamoud Diabete before his leg got caught around teammate Andrew Vorhees. He did not return to the contest.
“Knowing Zay, he’s played when he hasn’t practiced,” Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy said of Flowers’ resilience earlier this week. “He’s a tough little sucker…He’s gonna do everything he can to play. I’m going in expecting to see him. I’m going in knowing I got him in the game”
Bateman was the team’s second-leading receiver in 2024. The 2021 first-round pick caught 45 passes for a career-high of 756 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.
MVP candidate and quarterback Lamar Jackson can also rely on old friend Mark Andrews in the passing game. The veteran tight end looked past his best early in the campaign but recovered to finish with a team-high 11 touchdowns.
Jackson and company will face a Steelers team mired in a four-game losing streak. The two teams split the season series, each winning at their home field. Pittsburgh is mostly healthy, with stars T.J. Watt and George Pickens having recovered from recent knocks.
