Baltimore Ravens star wide receiver Zay Flowers “is a long shot to be able to play this weekend,” NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported during an appearance on “Good Morning Football” on Wednesday.
Flowers is still dealing with soreness from the knee injury he suffered in Week 18 and was listed as a non-participant in Tuesday’s practice report.
His likely absence for Saturday’s AFC wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET, would be a massive blow to the Ravens.
Flowers was quarterback Lamar Jackson’s top option throughout the regular season and paced the Ravens in targets (116), receptions (74), yards (1,059) and yards after catch (463).
If the second-year wideout is inactive Saturday, tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, and fellow receiver Rashod Bateman, often Jackson’s second option behind Flowers, figure to be more involved.
The Ravens could also lean more on star running back Derrick Henry and Jackson in the run game.
“I don’t think it’s just about one guy, it’s everybody,” Ravens’ head coach John Harbaugh said, per ESPN, of making up for Flowers’ potential absence. “We have a lot of weapons. We can move guys around different ways, scheme those guys up and they can all make plays.”
Flowers has not been definitively ruled out as of yet, and as Rapoport reports, “everyone has a chance [to play] because it is the playoffs … [he] does have a chance to come back the next week, if the Baltimore Ravens take care of business, but this week seems like a ‘no.’”
Flowers’ knee injury occurred in the second quarter of Baltimore’s season finale — a 35-10 thrashing of the woebegone Browns.
Harbaugh told reporters after the game that Flowers was going to undergo an MRI to determine the extent of his knee injury.
“It’s something that he has a chance to be OK with, but we’ll probably have more details after an MRI [Sunday] morning,” Harbaugh said.
On Monday, Harbaugh clarified that Flowers had not suffered a season-ending injury but is considered day-to-day.
“[Flowers will] try to do everything he can do to get back as soon as he can, and we’ll see where that takes us,” he said.
If Flowers is unable to play, it will be the first game he has missed since the regular-season finale of the 2023 season.
Fourth-year receiver Tylan Wallace would likely draw the start in Flowers’ place.
