Zay Flowers

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. Read Past Outlooks