Ravens WR Named Best Breakout Bet

One of the Baltimore Ravens' greatest strengths has quietly developed into a potential weakness within one of the team's most important position groups.

They've been praised all summer for their depth, accumulated over years of team-building and tweaked in an offseason defined by swinging on impact rookies in the NFL Draft and carefully choosing which veteran free agents to implement into the locker room. But in a league where high-end talent is often required to rule supreme, the Ravens' receiver room looks plenty deep without any true stars for quarterback Lamar Jackson to air the ball out to.

They have talent, with Zay Flowers coming off of his first Pro Bowl selection, Mark Andrews having hauled in a career-high 11 receiving touchdowns in his seventh season and DeAndre Hopkins looking to make an impact with his fifth team, but they could still benefit from one more big-play option.

That's where Rashod Bateman comes in. He made a big jump in his fourth season, having totaled just four receiving touchdowns in his first three years before stacking up nine in 2024. He received a shoutout in PFF's projections of the Ravens' upcoming season as a likely bet to continue ascending, with Bateman's promising statistical jump catching national attention.

The best bet PFF gave out for the team was for Bateman to cash in on the over for 3.5 receiving yards for his comfortability in touchdown territory.

"Even in a deep receiving corps, Bateman consistently created separation and posted a 98th percentile separation rate, which helped earn Lamar Jackson’s trust and should lead to an even bigger role in 2025, especially in the red zone," Dalton Wasserman wrote.

Another jump for the former first round pick can be one of the little margin victories that helps push the Ravens even closer to favored odds at winning next season's Super Bowl, as they'll need everything to click in finally clearing the hump. The receiving corps is deep, and they could really use that reliable playmaker from deep.