The Baltimore Ravens will spend Sunday morning in Brazil waiting on a decision that could reshape their Week 3 plan against the Dallas Cowboys.
Zay Flowers, the team’s top wide receiver, remains listed as questionable with a hamstring injury, and the club is expected to make a final call only after a pregame workout. However, ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the Ravens don’t seem to be planning on Flowers being available.
Flowers first hurt the hamstring in the opening half of Baltimore’s 41-23 win over Indianapolis. He sat out last week’s loss to New Orleans and then missed the first two practices of this week before doing limited individual work on the final day. That sequence left him on the injury report as a game-time question rather than a firm absence.
But now, it’s looking like Baltimore may hold him out of action.
That caution is easy to understand. Flowers has been one of Lamar Jackson’s most explosive options, and in his only appearance this season he caught five passes for 150 yards and a touchdown.
He has also made two Pro Bowls over the previous three years. A slick field in Brazil only raises the stakes. Reports about the playing surface have been unflattering, and a hamstring that is not fully healed can turn a single cut or plant into another missed week, or worse.
If Flowers cannot go, Rashod Bateman is next in line as the featured receiver. Last week against the Saints, Bateman and tight end Mark Andrews were Jackson’s primary targets, and that pairing would likely carry the passing game again.
Baltimore would also be expected to lean more heavily on the run. Derrick Henry and Jackson’s designed keepers and RPOs would become the center of the offense, a shift that is not necessarily a disadvantage.
Dallas has struggled against mobile quarterbacks through two games, allowing at least 54 rushing yards from the opposing passer in each contest.
The Ravens would rather have Flowers on the field. His speed and ability to stretch a defense change how opponents play Jackson and open space for Henry.
Still, the organization has every reason to think beyond one September game in Brazil. A healthy Flowers is part of any realistic Super Bowl path for Baltimore.
Pushing him onto a questionable surface with a hamstring that has already cost him a game would be a short-term gamble with a long-term cost.
By kickoff, the workout will have given coaches a clearer answer.
Until then, the Ravens are preparing as if their No. 1 receiver may not be available, and as if the running game and secondary targets will have to carry the load.
