Ravens broad receiver Zay Flowers is a giant fan of soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, which explains his response after his second landing towards the host Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday evening. After capturing a pretend penalty kick previous fellow wideout Odell Beckham Jr., he imitated Ronaldo’s “Siuuu” celebration with NBC’s Mike Tirico shouting “Gooooooooooooal!” on the published.
“I’ve been playing FIFA a lot,” Flowers stated.
He’s been catching lots, too. The twenty second general draft choose’s team-leading 58 receptions are already probably the most by a rookie in franchise historical past. He’s simply 228 yards away from surpassing Torrey Smith’s mark for probably the most yards by a first-year Ravens participant, and his 613 yards rank fourth within the NFL amongst rookie receivers this season. Only the Los Angeles Rams’ Puka Nacua (73) has extra catches.
Beyond the numbers, what’s been Flowers’ influence?
“I would describe the impact he’s had is right on time,” quarterback Lamar Jackson stated. “You notice every time he did something, it was right on time. It was perfect situations where he scored [and] made the touchdown catch on that run, and he just needs to keep doing it. [He needs] to keep getting the ball in his hand, not just him, but all of our receivers — ‘Bate’ [Rashod Bateman] is a great receiver [and] ‘OB’ [Beckham] and ‘Nelly’ [Nelson Agholor], we have to get everybody involved, because those guys catch the ball and make magic.”
No yet another so than Flowers, whose two touchdowns towards the Chargers got here on a 3-yard go to the again of the top zone after a play-action pretend from Jackson, after which on a 37-yard jet sweep handoff to seal a 10-point victory.
The latter was the second-longest landing run by a large receiver within the NFL this season. Flowers additionally had only a 0.7% likelihood of scoring on it, based on Next Gen Stats, however was already operating at 15.46 mph when he obtained the handoff.
It was simply the newest instance of Flowers displaying off not simply his velocity, however his versatility.
In the season opener, Flowers had 9 catches — a franchise report for a rookie in his debut — for 78 yards. That included a 28-yard achieve on the Ravens’ sixth play of the sport, as Flowers cemented his “Joystick” nickname by leaving a path of defenders in his wake. The 54 yards he gained after the catch towards the Houston Texans was the best proportion (.692) by a rookie in a sport over the previous two seasons, per Next Gen Stats.
Just over a month later, Flowers grew to become simply the second receiver since 1970 to tally at the least 50 yards from scrimmage in every of his first seven profession video games when he hauled in 4 passes for 75 yards towards the Detroit Lions. The subsequent day, Ravens coach John Harbaugh famous that the rookie out of Boston College is diligent, very good and “not anywhere near where he’s going to be in terms of understanding the offense.”
Fast ahead to Week 13 and the Ravens’ bye, and it’s turn into obvious that Flowers continues to develop exponentially, each by way of influence and understanding the offense.
He is the perfect receiver on the roster.
“The kid is a guy that wants to be great, wants to soak up all the information as much as possible,” Ravens broad receivers coach Greg Lewis stated. “He talks to [assistant wide receivers] Coach ‘Dub’ [Keith Williams] and I daily about things that he can work on to get himself better. He’s getting out [to practice] early to get stretched out making sure he’s ready to go. He’s just a young guy, [and] to see him do those type of things is pretty impressive on his end as professional as he is as early [as he is] in his career.”
The greatest distinction between that Week 1 breakout and now, Williams stated, is Flowers’ understanding of not simply the place he must be however the idea of the play design.
“For a young player to come into the NFL in any organization, learn a new offense, learn the verbiage and understand that it’s hard to learn one spot, let alone two or three spots,” Williams stated. “He has grown immensely throughout the season as far as understanding the entire schematic of what we’re trying to get accomplished and how he fits into the puzzle and then going out there and letting his talent shine.”
Added proper sort out Morgan Moses: “He’s electrifying. Every time he has the ball, he makes somebody miss. And it’s our job as offensive linemen to keep blocking for him. And he’s a guy that you can give the ball to him in a whole bunch of different ways.”
That ought to proceed to assist add an entire lot extra wins, too.
Week 14
Rams at Ravens
Sunday, Dec. 10, 1 p.m.
TV: Fox
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 7 1/2
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Source: www.bostonherald.com