Ian Hartitz previews the 2025 Baltimore Ravens and provides the fantasy football outlook for Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and others.

The Ravens looked as lethal as ever throughout 2024 behind what was arguably Lamar Jackson's most-complete season yet. Throw in a terrifying Derrick Henry-led run game and a defense that seemed to be peaking at the right time, and how could John Harbaugh and Co. NOT make it back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2012?

Answer: Mark Andrews. At least somewhat. The Ravens managed to drop a 27-25 heartbreaker in Buffalo despite outgaining Josh Allen and the Bills 416 scrimmage yards to 273. It was another early playoff exit for the team with the NFL's second-most regular-season wins since 2018.

Baltimore Ravens in 2024:

  • Points per game: 30.5 (3rd)
  • EPA per dropback: +0.33 (1st)
  • EPA per rush: +0.05 (2nd)
  • Points per game against: 21.2 (9th)

Good news: Not too much has changed over the past few months. Sure, an offensive line replacement and secondary piece or two needs to be addressed, but this is certainly one of the league's few teams who have earned the benefit of the doubt when reloading in recent years.

This brings us to today's goal: Answering key (mostly fantasy-related) questions about the Ravens ahead of their 2025 season.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

Ravens 2025 Fantasy Football and Team Preview

Should Lamar Jackson get drafted in Round 3?

We don't need to spend much time on Jackson's fantasy credentials. The reigning QB1 in fantasy points per game is now responsible for two of the top-six highest-scoring fantasy seasons of all time. Such is life when you're an alleged mortal capable of clearing 1,000 yards on the ground while also lighting it up through the air.

Seriously: Jackson should have put to rest any slander surrounding his passing ability last year. The man led the league in passing TD rate, yards per attempt, passer rating, QBR, and PFF pass grade. Under pressure or kept clean: You aren't stopping this man.

This brings us to the main question for Lamar in fantasy land: Is he worthy of such a high overall pick?

Given the presence of Lamar, Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels, and Jalen Hurts inside early top-50 ADP, we'll use that as a cutoff for our mini study.

Drumroll please …

  • Just 22 QBs have boasted top-50 overall ADP over the last five years
  • Average finish in fantasy points per game: QB7
  • Median finish: QB5
  • 13/22 (59%) returned top-six numbers on a per-game basis
  • All but three finished inside the top 12 (86%)
  • The three who didn't were all the non-Mahomes pocket passers: 2022 Justin Herbert, 2023 Joe Burrow, and 2024 C.J. Stroud.

Now, those who drafted Jackson as an early-round pick back in 2022 and received a QB6 finish in fantasy points per game probably wouldn't be thrilled if that repeated itself in 2025; just realize the track record of highly drafted *mobile* QBs at least returning QB1 production—and usually a heckuva lot more—is quite strong.

Lamar Jackson 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

Jackson's passing TD rate is certainly due for some regression; just realize the fact we now have proven 4,000-plus yards and 40-plus TD upside through the air is yet another feather in the cap of one of the best fantasy QBs the game has ever seen. Lamar and Josh Allen are deserving of early-round treatment and I look forward to getting a good amount of shares of both throughout the preseason process.

Final note: Why the hell is Cooper Rush the new backup in Baltimore? Give the longtime Cowboys QB2 credit for winning nine of his 14 career starts, but we're talking about one of the least-mobile signal-callers in the game. There's seemingly no real connection between Rush and any of the main offensive coaches on the Baltimore staff. Just … why?

Can Derrick Henry continue to tell Father Time to f*ck off?

Yes, King Henry turned 31 in January. Also yes, he showed no signs of falling off in 2024, racking up his most total yards (2,141) and TDs (18) since the 2019-2020 Titans seasons.

A large part of this was Lamar's gravity and the Ravens' ability to constantly get Henry a head of steam. This has consistently been the league's best offense in terms of RB yards before contact per carry—something the Titans badly struggled to provide for the future Hall of Famer during his last two years in Nashville.

Rank in RB yards before contact per carry 2020-2024:

  • Ravens: 1st, 7th, 5th, 6th, 2nd
  • Titans: 20th, 19th, 31st, 28th, 31st

Similar to Saquon Barkley, it's just tough to fathom how Henry really busts in a meaningful way this year without the Injury Gods being dickheads (I just knocked on wood, don't worry). If the Fantasy Football Gods told you your life depended on guessing exactly how many TDs Henry would score in 2025, what would you say? 15? 20? Exactly.

Now, I don't subscribe to the "RBs are screwed after racking up x touches" nonsense. You can look at the list of recent 400-plus touch qualifiers yourself. That said: The history of 30+ RBs putting up big-time fantasy numbers is admittedly pretty, pretty, pretty rough.

It's tough to be overly enthused about the other options here outside of Henry. Justice Hill is a very solid pass-down specialist capable of handling double-digit carries per game in a pinch, but it's likely Keaton Mitchell, Rasheen Ali or even a free agent off the street would also heavily factor into the equation. Here's to hoping Mitchell can get back to 2023 pre-injury form; the speedster was absolutely electric on his way to averaging 8.4 yards per carry (on just 47 rushes).

Derrick Henry 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

I totally get prioritizing younger, also-awesome RBs like De'Von Achane and Ashton Jeanty in Round 2 of fantasy drafts, but fading Henry is essentially praying for an injury because it's VERY tough to wrap your mind around him busting as the workhorse back inside anyone's idea of a likely top-five offense. Age red flag be damned, I'm still going to get quite a few shares of Henry throughout draft szn; we've seen time and time again that the man is a walking, talking exception to everything we think we know about running backs—something even learned doctors agree with.

How unusual was the Ravens 2024 WR production?

My name is Ian and I truly believe Zay Flowers is even better than what his numbers suggest. The man should be a legit finalist for the future USA Olympic Flag Football Team thanks to his joy-stick level short-area quickness. The 2023 first-round pick is seemingly always open and accordingly ranks sixth in ESPN's "Open Rating" over the past two seasons.

Sticking with that latter stat: The Ravens actually now boast *three* of ESPN's top-nine WRs in separation ability over the past two seasons:

Ravens WR rank in Open Rating during 2023-24 seasons:

  • Flowers: 80 (6th)
  • Hopkins: 77 (tied for 7th)
  • Bateman: 76 (tied for 9th)

Now, don't confuse D-Hop's slightly superior rating as evidence that he's the No. 2 in Baltimore. Give Bateman a lot of credit for finally putting together the sort of season that his truthers always believed was possible. The man was balling out last year!

Of course, it takes more than just talent to produce big-time numbers in fantasy land as a pass catcher in one of the league's perennial more run-heavy offenses. Last season was a bit of an outlier when it came to high-ish end fantasy production from Ravens WRs.

Top scoring Ravens WRs in PPR points per game

Bottom line: Even if Flowers has WR1-level talent like some jabronis such as myself believe, it's tough to see him getting the sort of gaudy target ceiling that would help turn that into similar high-end production in fantasy land. I wanted to be higher on Flowers before writing this preview, but this reality has forced me to treat him as more of a mid-tier WR3 ahead of 2025.

As for the other guys (underrated movie): Bateman is a quality boom-or-bust WR4 bet, but like Flowers, expecting high-end consistency when everyone is healthy seems like wishful thinking. 

Hopkins is the exact sort of late-round WR who people will draft thinking they need more depth at the position on their fantasy squad. In reality you're better off avoiding those archetypes in favor of spamming handcuff RBs during the latter stages of more drafts than not.

Was 2024 the beginning of the end for Mark Andrews?

The longtime stud Ravens TE averaged just 39.6 receiving yards per game last season after clearing the 50-yard mark in every season from 2019 to 2023. Throw in more six-year lows in per-route numbers for targets (19.4%) and yards (1.89), and it's fair to wonder if the best years of Andrews' career could be in the rear-view mirror.

Of course, 2024 wasn't all bad for the soon-to-be 30-year-old veteran. September was ROUGH, and the Divisional Round drop against the Bills certainly wasn't ideal; just realize Andrews still managed to catch a career-high 11 TDs and worked as the TE8 in PPR points per game in Weeks 5-18.

Would a "washed" TE really lead the position in “Open Rating?” Or rank third in yards per target?

Look, Andrews' overall route rate going from 73% in 2023 to 67% in 2024 isn't ideal, but *best Cris Collinsworth impression* we still have a guy here who ripped off five consecutive top-five finishes in PPR points per game from 2019 to 2023. It sure seems possible that his “bad” 2024 campaign that still produced top-eight fantasy numbers could be the floor here.

As for Likely: The overqualified TE2 had more than four targets in just three games following his 9-111-1 season-opening explosion against the Chiefs. A legit top-five ranking would be on the table without Andrews in the fold, but that seems increasingly unlikely ahead of 2025 barring injury.

Bottom line: Andrews' TE8 ADP (pick 106) is the lowest in years and is arguably still being somewhat impacted by offseason rumors of a trade or release. I'm a fan of this price tag and have largely refrained from pulling the trigger on more expensive guys like Sam LaPorta, T.J. Hockenson, and Jonnu Smith because potential high-end guys like Andrews, David Njoku, and Evan Engram are available and cheaper.

Likely is a late-round handcuff TE, but hey, if you're like me and in some redraft leagues that have 20-plus rounds, I've seen worse darts.

Just how strong is the Lamar Jackson effect?

Very!

The run-game impact in particular can't be overstated: Jackson's gravity in the read option game has helped the Ravens rank second in specific *RB* rush yards before contact over the last five years to only the Eagles. Not too shabby!

Prediction For The Ravens 2025 Season

The Ravens have racked up double-digit wins in all but one season since drafting Jackson in 2018. Back-to-back AFC North championships have each featured top-10 scoring offense and defense performances—something that again seems firmly on the table after the team managed to largely bring back most key parties from last year's squad.

Ultimately, Baltimore again profiles as the most complete and best overall team in the division. Give me OVER 11.5 wins and my bold fantasy prediction is that Bateman builds off last season's breakout performance with 800-plus yards and double-digit scores.