Baltimore Ravens star huge receiver Zay Flowers “is a protracted shot to have the ability to play this weekend,” NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported throughout an look on “Good Morning Soccer” on Wednesday.
Flowers continues to be coping with soreness from the knee harm he suffered in Week 18 and was listed as a non-participant in Tuesday’s apply report.
His doubtless absence for Saturday’s AFC wild-card recreation towards the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET, can be an enormous blow to the Ravens.
Flowers was quarterback Lamar Jackson’s prime choice all through the common 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 Seemingly, and fellow receiver Rashod Bateman, typically Jackson’s second choice behind Flowers, determine to be extra concerned.
The Ravens may additionally lean extra on star working again Derrick Henry and Jackson within the run recreation.
“I don’t suppose it’s nearly one man, it’s everyone,” Ravens’ head coach John Harbaugh stated, per ESPN, of creating up for Flowers’ potential absence. “We’ve numerous weapons. We are able to transfer guys round alternative ways, scheme these guys up they usually can all make performs.”
Flowers has not been definitively dominated out as of but, and as Rapoport studies, “everybody has an opportunity [to play] as a result of it’s the playoffs … [he] does have an opportunity to come back again the following week, if the Baltimore Ravens maintain enterprise, however this week looks like a ‘no.’”
Flowers’ knee harm occurred within the second quarter of Baltimore’s season finale — a 35-10 thrashing of the woebegone Browns.
Harbaugh advised reporters after the sport that Flowers was going to bear an MRI to find out the extent of his knee harm.
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“It’s one thing that he has an opportunity to be OK with, however we’ll in all probability have extra particulars after an MRI [Sunday] morning,” Harbaugh stated.
On Monday, Harbaugh clarified that Flowers had not suffered a season-ending harm however is taken into account day-to-day.
“[Flowers will] attempt to do all the things he can do to get again as quickly as he can, and we’ll see the place that takes us,” he stated.
If Flowers is unable to play, it is going to be the primary recreation he has missed because the regular-season finale of the 2023 season.
Fourth-year receiver Tylan Wallace would doubtless draw the beginning in Flowers’ place.