Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff Writer
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Lamar Jackson will be without his biggest target at the start of the postseason.
Pro Bowl wide receiver Zai Flowers missed the Baltimore Ravens’ wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night. Flowers injured his right knee in Saturday’s final regular-season game and missed practice all week.
Shortly after Ravens coach John Harbaugh announced Thursday that Flowers would not play, the former first-round pick walked into the locker room with a brace on his injured knee.
“We’re going to move forward with the players we have. We’re excited about the players we have,” Harbaugh said.
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This is the second game Flowers has missed in his two-year career. The loss of Flowers, who led Baltimore with 74 catches and 1,059 yards receiving, is significant for the NFL’s No. 1 offense.
The only Ravens wide receiver to catch more than 15 passes this season was Rashod Bateman, who had 45 receptions for 756 yards and nine touchdowns. In the second half Saturday, when Baltimore was without Flowers, Bateman had three catches for 51 yards and a touchdown.
“The situation we’re in doesn’t change anything about me and my role and what I have to do,” Bateman said of Flowers’ absence. “My job is to go out and make plays regardless of who’s on the field. So it might look a little different in terms of my position (lining up on the field), but overall As, we played a football game, and we have to go play ball.”
Flowers, a 2023 first-round draft pick, is one of Baltimore’s most dangerous players with the ball in his hands. His 463 yards after the catch this season are the most by a Ravens player in the last 12 years since running back Ray Rice totaled 472 yards after the catch in 2012.
But Harbaugh believes it will take a collective effort to absorb Flowers’ loss. Nelson Agholoa could receive more snaps at wide receiver, and tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely could get more targets.
“We have a lot of weapons,” Harbaugh said. “Lamar will distribute it the way he sees fit to play.”
Flowers was injured about three minutes into the second quarter of last Saturday’s 35-10 win over the Cleveland Browns when he fell forward on a 12-yard catch. Browns linebacker Mohamud Diabaté hit Flowers’ right knee just as his right leg was whipped by Ravens guard Andrew Voorhees. He did not return in the second half.
Last week, Flowers became the first wide receiver to appear in the Pro Bowl in the franchise’s 29-year history.
“He’s focused on rehab,” Harbaugh said of Flowers. “Every time I get in there, he’s working there, so we’ll see what happens next week.”
