Ravens rookie WR Zay Flowers came out of the gate hot for the Ravens with three double-digit target games in his first five – but since then, his weekly target share has been on a steady decline, and things bottomed out in Baltimore’s 37-3 rout of the visiting Seahawks. While the production hasn’t been up to par over the past few weeks, the utilization was passable - but Flowers put up his career-worst statistical performance in a game that felt like it should have featured him a lot more.
After leading the Ravens in target share from Lamar Jackson through the first eight weeks of the season (28%), Flowers earned and caught just one target for eleven yards in Week 9. Granted, he looked good on his lone productive play of the day, putting fellow standout rookie CB Devon Witherspoon on skates with a lightning-quick change of direction; but style points don’t matter in fantasy football, and earning just one target after seeing a gradual decline in fantasy production each of the three weeks prior makes life difficult for Flowers managers moving forward.
The one fallback for this quiet game from him could be that the game script was hilariously positive, and we shouldn’t expect Odell Beckham to be a staple in the Ravens’ passing attack on a weekly basis. But Flowers was, in a way, living off of being Lamar’s favorite target through eight weeks of the season, a title that he will cede to Mark Andrews this week after the tight end earned a 26% target share vs Seattle.