There used to be questions about whether Zay Flowers was one of the NFL's top wide receivers – a true No. 1, as some like to say.
One person who never had doubts is Steve Smith Sr. Before the 2023 NFL Combine, Smith gave Flowers his "Agent 89 stamp of approval."
"I believe he's special. I think he's special-er [than me]," Smith told fellow NFL Network analyst and former quarterback Kurt Warner.
Go back and listen to Smith's scouting report. He was spot-on, and he was shouting it from the rooftop. Good thing Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta was listening when he drafted Flowers in the first round in 2023.
There shouldn't have been any questions about Flowers' premier status after he finished seventh in the NFL in receiving yards last season. But the same tired "Is he a No. 1?" question arose when the Ravens gave Flowers a four-year, reportedly $140 million contract extension this offseason, ranking him fourth in average annual salary among wide receivers.
Flowers has put the question to bed this season. By any metric, he's been the most productive and unguardable wide receiver on a per-snap basis in the NFL.
Flowers' 405 receiving yards this season ranks eighth in the NFL, but he's missed two games' worth of snaps due to a hamstring injury. His quarterback, Lamar Jackson, has also now missed a game and a half.
Per route run, Flowers leads the NFL with 4.5 yards. When Jackson has been under center, Flowers has averaged 9.1 yards per route run (and 5.3 yards per play).
"I think it's great that he's actually getting recognition. I think that's extremely important," Smith said. "I was disappointed he got hurt in that Colts game because that could have been the game we're talking about like how we talk about Tyreek [Hill], how we talk about CeeDee Lamb, how we talk about some of these players who ended up damn near getting 200 yards receiving. Zay would have been on his way probably to 250 with the way he was going. He was in his bag."
Flowers has posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. In 2024, he became the Ravens' first Pro Bowl wide receiver, and he did it again last season. But this year, Flowers been on a different level.
Why? That's the question everyone keeps asking, and Flowers keeps pointing everywhere else, specifically to first-year Offensive Coordinator Declan Doyle.
"It's just Declan does a great job of drawing up the scheme and giving his playmakers the ball," Flowers said on “The Lounge” podcast. "So I just attribute it to that – Dec being able to find ways get me the ball in different areas."
Flowers has done a bit of everything and lined up everywhere in the Ravens offense. This season, he's lined up nearly as often in the slot (74 snaps) as out wide (71), per Pro Football Focus. He's even been in the backfield five times. Last season, Flowers lined up outside on nearly two-thirds of his snaps.
When people think of some of the premier wide receivers that have ever played, they often think of outside X receivers. But by positioning Flowers more in the slot and using him on motions, the Ravens have created more mismatches. He's being used more like the versatile weapon he is.
"It's just giving me opportunities to show what I could do more," Flowers said. "It's opening up my route tree, opening up everything that I can do."
The Ravens are also feeding Flowers the ball. The Rams' Puka Nacua, Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and 49ers' Mike Evans are the only wide receivers with a higher target share than Flowers' (34.1%), per Next Gen Stats.
Last season, Flowers had a 25.1% target share. Every receiver except one (the Cowboys' George Pickens) who posted more yards than Flowers had at least 45 more targets than Flowers' 118.
"I hate the term 'No. 1 wide receiver' because there are plenty of guys in this league that if they got 10 targets, they would be balling. I think it's about what you do with your opportunities," former Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith said.
"I think Zay Flowers has proven that if you give him opportunities, he's going to turn them into big plays and make an impact on his team. So, therefore, he's a guy that you have to try to get the ball to. Zay hasn't done anything different than what Zay's already done in the past. He just has more opportunities, and the coaches are doing an excellent job putting him in positions to create space, creating good matchups for him, and he's able to let his natural ability shine."
This past offseason, Flowers had a meeting with Doyle and came away feeling like he was in store for a big season.
"He was like, 'We're gonna run this offense through the playmakers, everybody that make plays,'" Flowers said. "I was like 'OK, now I gotta go back home and really get to work."
Every day but Sundays this past offseason, Flowers woke up at 5 a.m. to drive to the gym about 50 minutes away. He lifted, got treatment, drove back home, ate breakfast, went to a field and ran routes, went back home, rested, caught more balls at night around 8:30 p.m., ate dinner, then went to bed. Rinse and repeat.
Jackson also introduced Flowers to boxing a couple years ago. Several days a week, the star teammates went for extra boxing cardio before eating breakfast back at Flowers' house, where his sister cooked. Jackson said Flowers pushes him to wake up early.
But the truth is, Flowers' work ethic didn't really change. He only shifted his routine up by a couple hours this offseason to beat the Miami traffic.
"We've seen it since his rookie year; he's been the same player. All he knows is grind," Jackson said on "The Lounge" podcast. "His work ethic is extremely out of this world. That's why he's the type of player he is. This year, I feel like he will have a monstrous year – hopefully a record-breaking year."
If Jackson and Flowers' health allows them to stay on the field together this season, it's certainly conceivable that Flowers will flirt with some records – and crush some stereotypes.
The reason why Flowers hasn't been viewed by some as a No. 1 receiver is because of his height. He stands in at 5-foot-10.
"They're used to Jerry Rice, they're used to Randy Moss — these guys that are over six foot, weighing around 200 pounds. Those are the guys they see as 'number one,'" Torrey Smith said. "But at the end of the day, if that same guy is 5'9" and he still has five catches for 140 yards, it's still five for 140. At the end of the day, production matters. People like to discriminate against size, but the reality is Zay's proven it in the past. And he's for sure proven this year that he's one of the top guys in the league."
Flowers doesn't want to hear that noise, either.
"You can't you can't really tell me like what kind of receiver is a receiver No. 1 when you had guys like Steve Smith, Antonio Brown, Tyreek Hill," Flowers said. "It's a number of guys that were smaller and that was receiver No. 1 and led in a lot of categories and led their team to championships, playoff games, and did a lot of stuff. So you can't really tell me what a receiver No. 1 look like."
It's a short list of receivers who have led the NFL in receiving yards at sub six feet tall in the modern era: Steve Smith (2005), Antonio Brown (2014 and 2017), T.Y. Hilton (2016), and Tyreek Hill (2023).
Flowers isn't the first elite receiver with a smaller stature, but he's carrying the torch. He's redefining what that looks like – in his own way.
Smith-Njigba isn't the biggest receiver either, standing in at about 6-foot and ½ inches and 197 pounds (14 pounds heavier than Flowers). Smith-Njigba was voted the Offensive Player of the Year last season after leading the league with 1,793 receiving yards.
But Flowers said he doesn't see his game being like Smith-Njigba's. Flowers has watched a lot of Smith, Brown, Hill, and Santana Moss, taking parts of their styles and mixing it with his own.
"I see stuff from people that I feel like they were similar to my size or similar attributes to what I have and I'll try to take it, make it my own way," Flowers said. "But I'm more of like an instinct player. Sometimes, I don't even plan on doing something and it'll just happen. I'm more a reaction-based player."
Flowers showed that in Sunday's overtime win in Atlanta when he caught a pass, spun away from a defender, took three one-footed hops to stay in bounds, juked a defender, and picked up extra yards through contact. He has an elite mixture of athleticism – able to shake defenders with his sudden jukes or zoom past them using his high-end speed.
Even though his playing days ended a decade ago, Steve Smith still gets a little fired up talking about the subject of size. It's a chip that he carried on his shoulder for a long time during his playing days.
"Everybody talks about height – everybody," Smith said. "I don't care if a guy is short, tall, fat, round. If you can play, you're a short player that can play. If you can't, you're a short player that can't play.
"The thing that I dislike hearing is for a tall guy, we say, 'Oh man, his height!' That's a plus, supposedly. And then for a short guy, we always associate that with a negative. I don't like Zay because he's a short guy. I like him because he can just play football."
Flowers was compared to Smith a lot when during the draft process. Smith did so himself. Seeing what Flowers has become, Smith can't help but smile.
"I don't try to put myself in the same category as these guys. I'm retired," Smith said. "But I do think it's cool that he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing at his height. I think if you look at wide receivers for what they are and not for what they don't have, you can really enjoy their game."
Torrey Smith said there are four Flowers jerseys in his house because of the example he sets. Besides his skill, Smith loves how much fun Flowers has playing football, how he "genuinely enjoys playing the game." Smith called him a "perfect Raven."
Flowers has checked the box as a No. 1 wide receiver in the NFL. Next, he could go down as the greatest Ravens wide receiver in franchise history, and he's only in his fourth season. Helping the Ravens get over the hump and win a Super Bowl, like Smith did, would certainly add to his case.
"There ain't much competition, so I think he's going to be it," Torrey said. "He's going to have the longevity, he's going to have the impact. And eventually, there'll be some moments where you go, 'Hey, this happened because Zay Flowers was on our team.'"
