A pair of Super Bowl contenders will be without their leading wide receivers Sunday. That creates the opportunity for others to move into more substantial roles. Or not.
Both Zay Flowers and Nico Collins caught touchdowns in Week 1, but both have been ruled out with hamstring injuries. And with both teams, the presumed No. 2 wide receivers have also been ruled out. Jayden Higgins tore his ACL in August; that’s unfortunate, with him catching 12 passes and 2 TDs in the three games Collins missed last year.
For the Ravens, Ja’Kobi Lane played well enough in August to earn a starting role in Week 1, but he left that game with a broken wrist. So we are down, apparently, to the more modest options for both teams.
For the Texans, I don’t see a lot of difference between Xavier Hutchinson, Jaylin Noel and Kayshon Boutte. Hutchinson was the busiest in Week 1, with 6 targets resulting in 3 catches for 32 yards. But Noel and Boutte did a better job of getting downfield. Noel had 35- and 18-yard catches, while Boutte had a 21-yard grab.
For the Ravens, Rashod Bateman is by far their most experienced option. But he’s provided way more misses than hits since they selected him in the first round of the 2021 draft. At Indianapolis, he was on the field for 78 percent of the team’s plays (no other wide receiver exceeded 40) but with the only pass thrown his way falling incomplete.
There have been plenty of decoy-type games during Bateman’s career. He’s been on the field for over two thirds of the team’s offensive plays 29 times as a Raven, but he’s caught only 67 passes for 944 yards in those games, with 9 TDs. That averages out to 2.3 catches for 33 yards. So tough to sign off on him.
| BATEMAN WITH 67-PLUS PERCENT SNAP COUNTS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2021 | Chi. | W, 16-13 | 6 | 3 | 29 | 9.7 | 0 |
| 2021 | G.B. | L, 30-31 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 |
| 2021 | at Cin. | L, 21-41 | 5 | 4 | 26 | 6.5 | 1 |
| 2021 | LAR | L, 19-20 | 10 | 7 | 58 | 8.3 | 0 |
| 2021 | Pitt. | L, 13-16 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 11.0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Ind. | L, 19-22 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Cle. | L, 31-33 | 4 | 2 | 25 | 12.5 | 0 |
| 2023 | Cin. | W, 34-20 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 1 |
| 2023 | at LAC | W, 20-10 | 5 | 2 | 21 | 10.5 | 0 |
| 2023 | Mia. | W, 56-19 | 6 | 4 | 54 | 13.5 | 0 |
| 2024 | at K.C. | L, 20-27 | 5 | 2 | 53 | 26.5 | 0 |
| 2024 | L.V. | L, 23-26 | 4 | 3 | 40 | 13.3 | 0 |
| 2024 | Was. | W, 30-23 | 4 | 4 | 71 | 17.8 | 0 |
| 2024 | at T.B. | W, 41-31 | 4 | 4 | 121 | 30.3 | 1 |
| 2024 | at Cle. | L, 24-29 | 5 | 1 | 28 | 28.0 | 0 |
| 2024 | Cin. | W, 35-34 | 8 | 6 | 54 | 9.0 | 1 |
| 2024 | at Pitt. | L, 16-18 | 5 | 2 | 30 | 15.0 | 0 |
| 2024 | at NYG | W, 35-14 | 5 | 3 | 80 | 26.7 | 2 |
| 2024 | Pitt. | W, 34-17 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 1 |
| 2024 | Cle. | W, 35-10 | 8 | 5 | 76 | 15.2 | 1 |
| 2025 | at Buff. | L, 40-41 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 5.0 | 0 |
| 2025 | at K.C. | L, 20-37 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 24.0 | 0 |
| 2025 | Hou. | L, 10-44 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 2025 | Chi. | W, 30-16 | 4 | 2 | 51 | 25.5 | 0 |
| 2025 | at Mia. | W, 28-6 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 1 |
| 2025 | Cin. | L, 14-32 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 2025 | Pitt. | L, 22-27 | 3 | 2 | 23 | 11.5 | 0 |
| 2025 | N.E. | L, 24-28 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 2026 | at Ind. | W, 41-23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
Baltimore used two other wide receivers on Sunday: LaJohntay Wester (a sixth-round pick last year who’s more kick returner than wide receiver) and journeyman Chris Moore. Moore, remarkably, is in his 11th year, but with just 150 career receptions. They have two other receivers on their roster who didn’t play last week: Devontez Walker and Elijah Sarrett.
Walker has chipped in a few impact catches in his first two seasons, including 4 TDs. They’re saying he’s ready to return from the groin injury that shelved him in Week 1, so I would guess he’ll be starting. (And if I were desperate enough to be picking through Ravens receivers, I would be about as likely to go with Walker as Bateman.)
Given the receiver situations for these teams, it’s a good sign for the running backs. Both Derrick Henry and David Montgomery scored multiple touchdowns in Week 1, and both are queued up nicely to put up solid numbers.
And I would think it’s a safe bet that the veteran tight ends will be involved. Both Mark Andrews and Dalton Schultz were the 2nd-leading pass catchers on their teams last week. Andrews caught 4 passes for 49 yards, while Schultz caught 4 passes for 35 yards on 8 targets.
Of these two tight ends, I like Andrews a lot more. With his red zone production over the years, he looks like a top-10 tight end to me.
With Schultz, I’m troubled that he hasn’t been better with similar opportunities in the past. Collins has missed nine games in the past two seasons, and Schultz in those games has averaged only 2.9 catches for 39 yards, with no touchdowns.
| SCHULTZ WITH NICO COLLINS OUT | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Tgt | No | Yards | Avg | TD |
| 2024 | at N.E. | W, 41-21 | 8 | 4 | 27 | 6.8 | 0 |
| 2024 | at G.B. | L, 22-24 | 2 | 1 | 28 | 28.0 | 0 |
| 2024 | Ind. | W, 23-20 | 6 | 4 | 52 | 13.0 | 0 |
| 2024 | at NYJ | L, 13-21 | 6 | 3 | 21 | 7.0 | 0 |
| 2024 | Det. | L, 23-26 | 4 | 3 | 66 | 22.0 | 0 |
| 2025 | S.F. | W, 26-15 | 3 | 2 | 24 | 12.0 | 0 |
| 2025 | Ind. | W, 38-30 | 4 | 4 | 73 | 18.3 | 0 |
| 2025 | at Pitt. | W, 30-6 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 4.0 | 0 |
| 2025 | at N.E. | L, 16-28 | 2 | 2 | 47 | 23.5 | 0 |
—Ian Allan
