Zay Flowers’ knee injury is not “season-ending,” according to Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, who said the Pro Bowl receiver is “day to day” as the Ravens prepare to face the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round of the playoffs this weekend.
The third-seeded Ravens (12-5) will host the sixth-seeded Steelers (10-7) on Saturday, Jan. 11, at 8 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens won their final four games to overtake the Steelers — who lost their last four — and claim their second straight AFC North title.
But in the regular-season finale, a 35-10 romp against the last-place Cleveland Browns on Jan. 4, Flowers went down early in the second quarter with a right knee injury. He slowly limped off and did not return.
Flowers led the Ravens this season in targets (116), receptions (74) and receiving yards (1,059) and caught four touchdown passes. Flowers, who also ran nine times for 56 yards, was named to the Pro Bowl last week, becoming the first player in Ravens history to be honored as a Pro Bowl wide receiver.
Holding his regular Monday news conference via Zoom because of a snowstorm in the Baltimore area, Harbaugh said Flowers’ injury is “not a season-ending injury, so it’s just going to be day to day. [Zay] is going to try to do everything he can do to get back as soon as he can, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Harbaugh declined to classify or get into further details of the injury other than to say, “It’s his knee. I can tell you that.”
Flowers had five catches for 100 yards in the Ravens’ 34-17 win against Pittsburgh three weeks ago. That was one of five 100-yard games this season for Flowers, tying the franchise mark for 100-yard receiving games in a season (Mark Andrews, 2021).
Flowers had two catches for 39 yards and a touchdown in the Week 11 game at Pittsburgh.
Like tight end Mark Andrews — who set a Ravens record against Cleveland by catching a touchdown pass in his sixth straight game — Flowers has developed a strong rapport with quarterback Lamar Jackson. Flowers is an elusive menace to defenders, as he led the Ravens in yards after the catch this year with 463.
If Flowers is unable to go, the Ravens will lean more heavily on Rashod Bateman, who is coming off the finest season of his career. Bateman finished the year with 45 catches for 756 yards and nine touchdowns, including one in the regular-season finale.
“He’s been playing at a high level all year,” Harbaugh said. “He made big plays for us in that [Cleveland] game this past week. He was a factor in those drives in getting us into scoring position numerous times, so yes, he’s good, but it’s not just Rashod. I don’t think it’s about one guy. It’s everybody. We have a lot of weapons. We can move guys around in different ways, scheme those guys up, and they can all make plays.”
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