Zay Flowers was back on the practice field Friday. That is the good news. The rest of the report is where Baltimore should pump the brakes.
ESPN’s Jamison Hensley noted that both Flowers and left tackle Ronnie Stanley returned to practice, but that neither did much during the media viewing portion. Flowers stood and talked with teammates and coaches. He did no running while reporters were watching.
That is not a player who is ready. That is a player checking a box on an injury report.
How He Got Here
Flowers left Baltimore’s 41-23 Week 1 win over the Colts with a hamstring injury after a monster start: five catches for 150 yards and a touchdown, including a 54-yard score that put the Ravens up 21-6 in the second quarter.
He was listed as a DNP on both Wednesday and Thursday. He was initially called day-to-day, and Ian Rapoport reported the Ravens star would have returned if it had been a playoff game.
Read that last line again, because it is the entire argument. It is not a playoff game. It is Week 2 against the New Orleans Saints at home.
Hamstrings Do Not Negotiate
Soft tissue injuries are the ones that punish teams for optimism. A receiver whose game is built on separation and vertical speed is exactly the wrong player to rush back at 85 percent. Flowers is coming off the best season of his career, 86 catches for 1,211 yards and five touchdowns in 2025 while playing every regular-season game. That availability is an asset worth protecting.
The math is simple. Baltimore is a legitimate AFC contender with a long season ahead. Trading one game against the Saints for a three-week reaggravation in October would be a terrible deal.
The Ravens Can Absorb It
Baltimore hung 41 on Indianapolis and did it with balance. The offense does not collapse without one receiver for one week, especially at home against a Saints team that has its own problems.
Stanley’s toe is a separate concern and arguably the bigger one, since offensive line continuity is harder to replace than a single pass catcher. Both showing up limited on the same Friday should tell the Ravens something about how this week is trending.
Expect A Game-Time Decision
Flowers’ status should firm up over the weekend, and the smart money says Baltimore lists him as questionable and makes everyone wait. Coaches love that optionality.
The right call is to hold him. Get him to Week 3 at full speed instead of getting him to Week 2 at three quarters and losing him again. The Ravens have too much invested in this season to be careless in September.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.