Baltimore spent Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis putting up 41 points, and for about two hours the only thing anyone in Charm City cared about was whether Zay Flowers was okay.
He is. Mostly.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Monday that Flowers suffered a hamstring injury that is not considered serious. Rapoport’s exact wording matters here: “He’ll have an MRI, but if it was a playoff game, he likely would’ve returned. Flowers is considered day-to-day heading into testing.”
That is about the best possible outcome for a hamstring pull in Week 1. Soft tissue injuries are the ones that linger, and receivers who depend on separation are the players who suffer most when they linger. A day-to-day tag on a Monday in September means the Ravens still have their guy.
The Numbers Make the Scare Worse
Here is the part that makes this feel like a bullet dodged rather than a routine injury note. Flowers led every player in the game with 150 receiving yards and a touchdown. He did it on five catches and six targets. He did it in a partial afternoon of work.
Thirty yards per catch on five of six targets, plus a touchdown, and he was on the sideline for a chunk of a game the Ravens won 41-23.
No possession receiver has a day like that against a secondary. Flowers was functioning as the field-flipping element of Lamar Jackson’s offense, which is exactly the role Baltimore needs him in. When Jackson has a downfield threat who wins vertically, the entire play-action package opens up and the running game gets lighter boxes. Flowers is that threat.
What It Means for Week 2 Against New Orleans
The Ravens host the Saints at M&T Bank Stadium in Week 2, and the smart play is caution. Baltimore should be willing to hold Flowers out even if the MRI comes back clean, because a tweaked hamstring in September that gets aggravated in Week 2 becomes a six-week problem by October.
There is also the small matter of the Ravens not needing to press. This offense scored 41 points against the Colts and got two rushing touchdowns from Derrick Henry, who moved into third all-time on the NFL’s career rushing touchdown list in the process. When Henry is finding the end zone twice and Jackson is running the show, Baltimore can survive a week without its top receiver.
The risk is treating Flowers as indestructible because he keeps producing. He put up 150 yards on a bad wheel. That is impressive and also a reason to sit him down.
Baltimore’s offensive ceiling this season runs through the Jackson and Flowers connection working at full speed in January. Everything else is negotiable. The run game will show up. The play calling will get where it needs to go. But a healthy Flowers in the postseason is the difference between a good Ravens offense and one nobody can defend.
So take the week. Take two if the MRI suggests it. The Ravens have the talent to absorb it, and Flowers proved Sunday what he is worth when he is right.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.