Who Should I Start? Tony Pollard or Zay Flowers

Saturday, October 3, 6:22 AM

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers (hamstring) appears to be back on track after an early-season hamstring injury that kept him out or on a snap count since the end of Week 1's first half. The team's unquestioned WR1 logged a limited practice Wednesday, a full practice Thursday, and another limited practice Friday, but the latter was for rest, according to the team's final injury report. When asked about his hamstring after Wednesday's practice, Zay responded positively, "I think we'll be all right." The Ravens will host the Tennessee Titans in Week 4, and their defense has played tough against the pass thus far. The Titans' defense is running Cover 4 at the league's highest rate (36.5%) and has yet to allow a passing touchdown using this coverage. They have also allowed the seventh-lowest passing yards per game (189), but are in the bottom ten for EPA per pass play (+0.06) and 19th overall in yards per pass play (6.4) heading into Week 4. However, despite his limited snaps this season, Flowers leads the league with 19.5 yards per target, a 46.2% target rate, 0.7 EPA per route, a 38.5% first-down rate, and a 23.1% explosive play rate, according to Next Gen Stats. The fourth-year wideout ran only 15 routes on Sunday (second on the team), but reports said he was on a snap count to manage his recovery, and the Ravens relied heavily on their ground game in Brazil. Despite these limitations, Flowers caught five of his six targets for 84 yards, had one rushing attempt for 20 yards, and was integral to the Ravens' thrilling victory. All signs point to a healthy, untethered Zay Flowers against the Titans this weekend, but managers should still monitor injury reports and temper expectations given the risk of reaggravation. However, if Flowers is active, the electric wideout profiles as a low-end WR1 and a locked-in starter across all formats