Baltimore Ravens No. 1 wide receiver Zay Flowers hasn’t been ruled out for Saturday’s playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Ravens coach John Harbaugh was far from sounding optimistic Flowers’ knee injury would be healed well enough for him to play.
“It’s not a season-ending injury, so it’s just going to be day-to-day,” Harbaugh told reporters in Baltimore during a virtual news conference Monday. “Zay is going to try to do everything he can do to get back as soon as he can, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Flowers suffered the injury during the first half of this past Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Cleveland Browns. Harbaugh declined to confirm reports that characterized the injury to Flowers’ knee as a “sprain.”
In his second pro season, Flowers easily led the Ravens in receptions (74) and receiving yards (1,059). In his stead, Baltimore relied more on its other starting WR, Rashod Bateman, as well as Tylan Wallace and rookie Tex Walker. Veteran Nelson Agholor did not play in the final three games of the regular season because of a concussion.
Harbaugh called Bateman “a tremendous player” but said that possibly having to replace Flowers is about more than “just one guy.”
“It’s everybody. We have a lot of weapons,” Harbaugh said. “We can move guys around in different ways, scheme those guys up, and they can all make plays.”
RB Hill ‘trending well’
No. 2 running back Justice Hill has not played since suffering a concussion during the regular-season meeting with the Steelers on Dec. 21. Harbaugh said Hill also was among a handful of Ravens players who were ill last week.
Among that group was starting left guard Patrick Mekari. Mekari started against the Browns but played only one series.
“They’re trending well,” Harbaugh said. “Patrick… I wanted to help him. … He would have played (the whole game), believe me. He would have played. He wanted to play, Justice wanted to play, too, but he wasn’t as close at Patrick, so those guys will be much stronger this week than they were last week.”
Harbaugh did not sound confident that reserve defensive back Arthur Maulet — a former Steeler — could return to game action Saturday. Maulet has been limited to three games this season because of a knee injury.
“That’s up in the air,” Harbaugh said of a Maulet return this postseason. “I don’t have a great handle on that right now.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at [email protected].
