OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens drafted Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers with the No. 22 overall pick in the NFL Draft, giving another weapon to Lamar Jackson and continuing head coach John Harbaugh’s pledge to rebuild the position after disappointing production in 2022.
The selection of Flowers also marks the third time in five years as general manager that Eric DeCosta has selected a wide receiver with the team’s first pick. DeCosta drafted Marquise Brown with his first-ever pick as GM in 2019, and then drafted Rashod Bateman at No. 27 overall in 2021.
Flowers has been linked to the Ravens in mock drafts for weeks, given their needs at wide receiver and the way he can fit into the scheme of new offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
Flowers was a first-team ACC and third-team All-American this year after catching 78 passes for 1,077 yards and 12 touchdowns, which set a school record. He totaled more than 3,000 receiving yards and 29 touchdown catches in a four-year career at Boston College.
The Ravens have had a tortured history with drafting wide receivers throughout their history; only two of the 33 receivers they have drafted ever had a 1,000-yard season with the team — Torrey Smith in 2013 and Brown in 2021. But DeCosta, who likes to use baseball metaphors, made clear a couple of years ago that the team would keep taking swings at the position, and Flowers is the latest.
Flowers is on the smaller side at 5-foot-9 and 182 pounds, but the Ravens were not deterred.
At the team’s predraft news conference, Harbaugh said, “What does undersized mean? Zay, he might be kind of short … but he’s not small. Like, he’s not a little guy. This guy is a strong guy. Plus, he can accelerate. He’s got great explosiveness.”
Harbaugh later added, when asked about smaller receivers, “What’s their superpower? So, yes, if your superpower is not size, there’s got to be one or two other superpowers that are going to help you be successful in this league. And you try to look at that individually and say, ‘OK, what’s going to be the key for him?”
Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz noted that Flowers played in the slot and outside for Boston College and said Flowers is “strong, even though he’s not big, and certainly, he can fly.”
“He plays bigger than his size overall,” Hortiz said.
Since the 2022 season ended, the Ravens signed free agent receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Nelson Agholor and now add Flowers to a unit that Harbaugh vowed to overhaul after a 2022 season in which the Ravens receivers totaled 1,517 yards, the lowest total in the league.
“That will be a new room, basically,” Harbaugh said at the season-ending news conference.
Demarcus Robinson led Ravens receivers with 458 yards, and he was not re-signed. Bateman, who was expected to be the No. 1 receiver in his second season, missed the final 11 games with a foot injury.
The Ravens finished 10-7 and earned a wild-card berth in 2022, losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Cincinnati Bengals. Jackson did not play in that game, the sixth straight game he missed with a knee injury.
Jackson, the league’s 2019 unanimous MVP, played out the final year of his rookie deal this past season, and his contract status dominated the NFL news cycle this offseason until he agreed to a long-term deal on April 27.
Photo Credit: BC Football