Zay Flowers Quietly Trending Toward Top-10 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Season
Fantasy

Zay Flowers Quietly Trending Toward Top-10 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Season

Ian Hartitz checks in on the Baltimore Ravens wide receivers, highlighting Zay Flowers' ascension to possible top-10 status in fantasy football.

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Is this the season that Zay Flowers takes a seat among the top wide receivers in fantasy football? He has the first-round pedigree and a pair of 1,000-yard seasons. Now entering Year 4 of his career, could a breakout be happening that would be a big win for fantasy football managers? Ian Hartitz breaks it down in his Baltimore Ravens Team Preview. 

Does Zay Flowers have a legit top-10 ceiling in fantasy land?

Well, the man did work as the WR7 in TOTAL PPR points last season (WR13 per game), so the answer sure seems like a yes! Give Flowers credit for being one of just six receivers with north of 1,200 receiving yards—and his WR15 ADP is easily the cheapest among that cohort.

Of course, it wasn't like 2025 was all fun and games for Flowers. He posted a big-time 7-143-1 performance in Week 1 … and then didn't score another touchdown until the middle of December. The man was nothing more than a low-ceiling WR3 for nearly three months of last season.

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This certainly wasn't all on Flowers. Having to play with Cooper Rush and Tyler Huntley for portions of last season didn't help matters, and Zay himself has battled recurring hand injuries throughout his career.

Look, Flowers doesn't deserve to be in the position's top-5 real-life or fantasy conversation or anything, but are we perhaps missing the forest for the trees here? This is a talented (1,200-yard season to his name, WR7 in ESPN's Open Rating) soon-to-be 26-year-old catching passes from the NFL's all-time leader in adjusted yards per attempt in an offense without any meaningful target competition (tied for 20th in projected targets). That's a pretty good combo!

Ultimately, Flowers comes in as Fantasy Life's consensus WR19, with two of our rankers having him inside the top 16, and two outside the top 20. I am in the former group and find myself perfectly fine drafting him in Rounds 3-4 alongside fellow No. 1 options like Ladd McConkey and Garrett Wilson.

Also note: It's probably a sickness, but I can't stop drafting Rashod Bateman even after last season's 19-224-2 dud. After all, we are only one year removed from the (wait for it) former first-rounder posting a 45-756-9 receiving line in essentially his only fully healthy season. And he looked good doing it! All signs out of OTAs point to Bateman (as usual) working as this offense's No. 2 wide receiver despite the presence of young'ns Ja'Kobi Lane and Elijah Sarratt. And hey, there's reason for optimism there too: Lane has some solid physical tools and has a penchant for making cool one-handed catches, while Sarratt did nothing but produce big numbers throughout his college career and offers more as a route-runner than given credit for. And yet, in my heart of hearts, I just struggle to see either displacing Bateman as Lamar's No. 2 WR (although Fantasy Life projections disagree with me). This leap of faith makes Bateman one of my favorite literal last-round clicks in early Underdog drafts. Will you want to deal with any of these guys in re-draft land? Absolutely not, but hey, that's why God invented best ball!

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Zay Flowers
    ZayFlowers
    WRBALBAL
    PPG
    11.8
    Proj
    188.7
  2. Rashod Bateman
    RashodBatemanQ
    WRBALBAL
    PPG
    3.4
    Proj
    58.8

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