Baltimore Ravens Team Preview 25-26

  •  

    The Ravens much like the Bills continue to fall short of expectations, but while the Bills continue to tinker with their formula, the Ravens keep adding strength on strength.  They may have lost to the Bills in the playoffs, but by the end of the season, their roster looked as formidable as anyone outside of Philly.  Whether you are talking fantasy or real football, this BAL team is a monster.  The defense shook off some early season shootouts and settled into being a team you couldn’t run on and had to be very careful passing against.  They gave up the second most passing yards, but that is because teams abandoned the run early as BAL led the league with a 3.6 yards-per-rush-allowed and only 1361 rushing yards against on the season.  The Ravens have always been a force on offense, but adding Derrick Henry certainly changed the narrative.  The Ravens were ranked 1st or 2nd in FPPG to QB, RB and the TE position.  The only “letdown” was from the WRs, who finished 25th, but Zay Flowers (WR24) was solid and Rashod Bateman (WR34) finally had a breakout season.  There were no holes on offense and once the team starting moving the chains, there was no stopping them.  Lack of depth at the WR spot hurt them and while Bateman and Flowers each played 16 games, no other WR even had 15 receptions on the season.  The offense could hurt you 100 different ways, but at it’s core this offense is about either Derrick Henry or Lamar Jackson gashing you.  There was no lesser of two evils as Henry had 19 rushes of 20+ yards and Jackson had the best passing season of his career by a mile (41 TDs and 4172 passing yards).

    The NFL doesn’t reward the past as much as it incentives the future, so where do we go from here?  They brought in veteran WR DeAndre Hopkins (WR48), but at 33, his best years are behind him and so is his fantasy relevance.  Flowers might not be a prototypical WR1, finishing as the WR24 with a 1059 yards and only four TDs, but there is nothing to suggest he is close to his ceiling as a fantasy stud.  If you told me that Jackson would throw for a career high in TDs and yards, I would have assumed Flowers was the main recipient.   His 25.4% TS was solid and should hold, but Flowers only had seven red zone targets, compared to eight for Bateman and a whopping 15 and 13 for Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely.  When the Ravens get close to the end zone, Jackson locks onto his TEs and while that might not change drastically, I suspect we are just hitting the ascent of Flowers and this could be a bargain as the BAL offense is going to be among the best in the league once again.

     


    Want to get access to Jon’s article? You’ll need to have a SportsEthos WagerPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up!
    Premium Access Required

    Come join us at SportsEthos by filling out an application here: https://sportsethos.com/nba-fantasy-news-and-advice/become-a-contributor/

    Follow us on Twitter for our latest pieces, content that will help winning your leagues and much more @EthosFantasyNFL! 

    Follow  Jon Mosales