Zay Flowers may have a bigger scoring lane this season because the Ravens barely fed him near the goal line a year ago. He finished with one touchdown catch inside the 20-yard line last season, a sharp contrast to the production he has built everywhere else on the field.
That is why people are asking about Flowers now. He is already one of the NFL’s most productive young receivers, with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and a Pro Bowl nod, yet he has never topped five touchdown catches in a season. On Thursday, after practice, Flowers kept the focus on the work in front of him. “Honestly, I am just working right now,” he said. “I am trying to get better.”
The numbers show why a touchdown rise is within reach. Outside the red zone last season, Flowers had 79 catches on 107 targets for 1,184 yards and four touchdowns, according to Sports Info Solutions. Inside the 20, though, the offense kept going elsewhere. Flowers was targeted 11 times there, caught seven passes for 27 yards and scored once. Over three seasons, he has 14 touchdown receptions and 16 total touchdowns, including two rushing scores, which is strong production for a player taken 22nd overall in 2023 but still leaves room for more if the ball finds him closer to the end zone.
The Ravens have reason to believe that could happen. They scored touchdowns on 47.5% of their trips inside the opposing 20-yard line last season, which ranked 27th in the NFL, even after owning the league’s most efficient red-zone offense in 2024 at 73.4%. That swing shows how quickly usage and execution can change from one season to the next. Jesse Minter said after Thursday’s practice that Flowers can thrive anywhere on the field and that he expects him to be productive no matter where the ball is thrown.
There is still a catch. Flowers does not need to become a touchdown machine to matter, and Baltimore does not need him to turn into a fantasy headline to justify the role. But he is already producing at a star level without the scoring numbers to match, and that mismatch matters more now because contract talks are part of the picture. Eric DeCosta has expressed optimism about an extension, and Chris Olave’s four-year deal with the New Orleans Saints, worth up to $132 million with $90 million guaranteed, offers one possible benchmark for a receiver picked in the same early part of the draft and producing on a similar statistical track. Olave, the 11th overall pick in 2022, has averaged about 73 catches, 932 yards and almost five touchdowns per season. Flowers has averaged 79 catches, 1,042 yards and almost five touchdowns per season.
What is still unknown is how far Baltimore will push Flowers in the red zone this season and where he will sit in the pecking order when the field shrinks. The Ravens have not even held a red-zone drill through their first two practices, so the shape of that answer is still coming. For now, Flowers has the résumé, the usage profile and the opportunity to turn a low-touchdown season into something closer to the numbers his yardage already suggest.
