Willie Snead was one of the Ravens' most productive wide receivers in his three years with the team.
Snead also watched the offense evolve from Joe Flacco to Lamar Jackson at quarterback.
Snead recently sat down with Tyler Dunne for his podcast, Go Long, to discuss the Ravens offense, which has been criticized as not being friendly to wide receivers. Snead agreed with that assessment.
“[Jackson] is all about the team. He’s fun," Snead told Dunne. "He brings the energy every single day. You want to play with quarterbacks like that. But the system pushes guys away. That’s why the Ravens are always drafting two receivers every year. They keep them young. They keep them locked in on contracts, but for an older veteran guy coming in, he might get one shot to do this. I don’t know if the Ravens are going to be that one shot for them unless you’re a tight end or a big-bodied receiver who can win those 50/50 balls.”
In three years with the Ravens (2018-2020), Snead caught 126 passes on 189 targets for 1,422 yards with nine touchdowns.
Last year, Snead signed a one-year, $1.1 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders but was released on Oct. 26. He later signed with the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad but his contract expired in January.
Snead contends the Ravens need to be more innovative with their offense.
“The tight ends get more creativity than the receivers," Snead said. "I don’t want to say the play calling in itself, but when you’re putting in plays versus certain defenses you know what certain stuff is going to work and what isn’t going to work. So every week has to be a brand-new game plan for this specific team. Now if you’re just copying and pasting from one week to the other, you see in the NFL, these defensive coordinators are great. So if they see something once or see it twice, they’re going to lock that in and you probably won’t be able to get it that time. You’ve got to be able to shift guys around and have different motions to make it look like one thing and it’s completely different.
"Those types of coaches take it to the next level, like Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur. Those guys put guys in position. They’ll shift and motion guys to identify that matchup and then exploit it. Those are the offenses I would like to be in and I know Hollywood is in that spot now where you can showcase all of your talent, all of your passing game. Not just the run game.”
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