Baltimore's air attack hilariously overlooked in confusing PFF rankings

For any franchise quarterback, one of the things you must have is a go-to wide receiver. The best quarterbacks in the game always have their top wide receivers to get the ball to during a game. For the Baltimore Ravens, franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson has his number-one wide receiver in Zay Flowers.

Baltimore drafted Flowers in the 2023 NFL Draft, and over the past two seasons, Jackson and Flowers have developed into one of the NFL's brightest duos. A duo that is still so young has a lot of years to truly blossom.

Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers feel way too low here

In their two years together to this point, Jackson and Flowers have connected for 151 catches, 1,917 yards, and 10 touchdowns in 33 games. They're off to a great start and should be ranked among the top quarterback and wide receiver duos in the NFL; however, not according to Pro Football Focus writer Trevor Sikkema.

Sikkema ranked the best quarterback and wide receiver or tight end combos in the league. Jackson and Flowers were surprisingly ranked pretty low and even behind some lower-tiered combinations. Combinations that Baltimore's duo has been far more productive than.

He ranked Flowers and Jackson 16th on his list. The ranking puts the duo behind Jordan Love and Jayden Reed of the Green Bay Packers, who were listed at 12th, and Michael Penix and Drake London of the Atlanta Falcons, who were at 10th. Sikkema writes:

"We all know of Lamar Jackson’s greatness, and though his go-to player over the past handful of years has actually been tight end Mark Andrews, Flowers is the future."

Flowers has recorded a 21.8% threat rate — a player's target rate on routes run — over the past two seasons, and Jackson has earned a 94.4 PFF passing grade when targeting him."

The argument seems to be that Flowers is not the top playmaker for Jackson and that Mark Andrews is, and that's true. Andrews has been Jackson's key pass catcher on third down and at the goal line. What is also true is that Flowers is the future in more ways than one. Listing them behind Atlanta's pair, who only played a handful of games together last year, is a little far-fetched.

Jackson is able to spread the field in the Todd Monken offense, and that allows the offense to expand its passing attack. Jackson sees the field as good as any quarterback in the NFL, and the ball will go to Flowers more. The more it does, the more productive they will be, and the higher they will be ranked.

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