The biggest news for the Ravens didn’t come during the first round of the draft.
It came on Thursday afternoon when the team announced that they had agreed to a five-year contract with quarterback Lamar Jackson. The long wait for the agreement created some uncertainty about what the future of the Ravens offense would look like, but Jackson’s deal allowed them to move forward with the knowledge that Jackson won’t be going anywhere.
Part of that future will be their first-round pick. Wide receiver Zay Flowers was selected at No. 22 and joins Odell Beckham Jr., Rashod Bateman, Mark Andrews, J.K. Dobbins, and others as pieces to use around Jackson in 2023 and beyond. Jackson and Beckham were at the top of the list of players that Flowers said he’s looking forward to playing with once he gets to Baltimore.
“Those are two guys that are explosive, that can make plays at any time,” Flowers said. “You know what Lamar can do, and you know what Odell can do. You’ve seen flashes of it; it just so happened that he got hurt; but now he’s back and it looks like he’s 100 [percent]. Then, I’m coming in. Then, we have ‘Bate’ on the outside, then we have J.K. in the backfield. It’s going to be fun.”
The Ravens believe Flowers can play inside or outside in their offense and it will be interesting to see how new offensive coordinator Todd Monken lays out all of the pieces available to him this fall.