NFL Executive Says Zay Flowers’ Upside Is Stefon Diggs

Since draft night, Ravens fans have heard compliments and critiques regarding the team’s draft from analysts and pundits.

Now, NFL executives and evaluators are having their say, with the grace of anonymity of course, as they spoke to The Athletic’s Mike Sando. Most compliments were centered around wide receiver Zay Flowers.

“Flowers’ upside is Stefon Diggs,” an evaluator said to Sando. “He has that from a route-running capacity.”

“Even though Zay is a small target, from a ball-in-hand, explosive play, run-after-catch standpoint, he gives them that more than Hollywood Brown did,” an executive said. “That is where I don’t have a problem with the player. I just think you have to have a plan for him.”

Not all were supportive of the Flowers selection, saying his size doesn’t work well with quarterback Lamar Jackson.

“If we learned anything at Baltimore with Lamar Jackson, it’s that small, short receivers don’t do well,” an evaluator told Sando. “The guy he throws it to is the 6-6 tight end.”

Maybe they missed when the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Marquise “Hollywood” Brown posted a 1,000-yard season with the Ravens in 2021?

One evaluator was more interested in the offense, and believes the Ravens have the talent to get things done, but there are question marks remaining.

“Monken is a receiver coach by trade,” an evaluator said. “OBJ will be the big wild card. Is he going to still have big-game potential? … I like their core. It has gotten better. That said, none of those guys are true No. 1s, which the Ravens can actually get away with. It is scheme, play-action, and their No. 1 guy is Mark Andrews, basically.”