Baltimore’s fantasy appeal is easy to understand and easy to flatten. Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, Zay Flowers, and Mark Andrews all play in an offense that can score, but those points don’t reach them through the same door. FFN’s team-tendency data recorded a 53.6 percent pass rate and a 54.8 percent red-zone rush rate for the Ravens in 2025. That’s terrific news for the player finishing drives. It puts more pressure on everyone who needs passes.
Draft Henry as a top-10 fantasy running back. Flowers is the first Baltimore pass catcher we want. Jackson stays in the elite quarterback conversation, though he makes more sense once the very top tier has gone. Andrews needs to earn weekly-starter treatment with a larger first-team role this preseason. Four famous names, four different instructions.
Derrick Henry gets the valuable work
Henry doesn’t need Baltimore to reinvent him. He needs handoffs, goal-line snaps, and enough offensive stability to keep the run available in the fourth quarter. FFN’s 2025 team profile shows that Baltimore supplied all three. Its neutral pass rate landed near the bottom of the league, and the Ravens finished possessions on the ground more often than through the air inside the red zone.
FFN’s late-season role data makes the case stronger. Henry handled 22 carries a game over Baltimore’s final five contests. During Weeks 16-18, that rose to 24.7 after he averaged 15.3 across the prior three appearances. His snap rate climbed alongside the carries. Baltimore wasn’t saving its veteran back for a few ceremonial goal-line plunges. The offense kept handing him the game.
That gives us a call readers can check: Henry will finish 2026 as a top-10 fantasy running back. FFN’s August 12 projection gives him 275 carries and nearly 14 rushing touchdowns, while the catch total remains modest. The receiving limitation is real, especially in full PPR, but it doesn’t erase a rushing job built around drive-finishing volume.
Age is the obvious challenge. Henry enters the season at 32, and a new staff has no obligation to preserve every 2025 tendency. Even so, workload decline has to appear before we price it in as fact. Watch the first-team goal-line periods and the backfield rotation on long drives. A veteran day off tells us little. Henry leaving the field when Baltimore gets inside the 10 would tell us plenty.
Zay Flowers controls the scarce targets
A run-heavy offense can still support a high-end receiver when its throws stay concentrated. FFN’s role record shows Flowers making that argument late last year. Over Baltimore’s final five games, he received 6.8 targets per appearance and commanded 34.1 percent of the team’s passes. He also accounted for 47.3 percent of Baltimore’s air-yard opportunity.
FFN’s Week 18 record supplies the football memory that matters. Baltimore attempted only 18 passes, yet Flowers played 98 percent of the snaps and received six targets. More than half of the downfield opportunity went his way. The box score showed a small passing day. His job inside that passing day was enormous.
That distinction is why Flowers remains the preferred receiving exposure. A receiver who keeps one of every three targets can survive limited team volume. He also has to keep winning beyond quick manufactured touches, and last season’s air-yard concentration says Baltimore trusted him to do that. FFN’s August 12 PPR rankings place Flowers at WR14. We’re comfortable with him in that range because the role is narrow in the best sense: when Jackson throws, Flowers is the first place to look.
A broader distribution under offensive coordinator Declan Doyle would reduce the advantage. Rashod Bateman, Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, and the backs don’t need to dominate individually to pull Flowers below that one-third threshold. Still, there’s a difference between possible target competition and demonstrated target control. Flowers owns the latter entering preseason.
How one offense creates four calls
| Raven | Established Evidence | Fantasy Treatment | Preseason Evidence Worth Changing For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derrick Henry | 22 carries a game over the final five contests | Top-10 RB target | A loss of first-team goal-line work |
| Zay Flowers | 34.1% target share over the same closing stretch | Preferred Baltimore receiver | Starter targets spreading across the formation |
| Lamar Jackson | 21.4 throws and 4.2 rushes a game late in 2025 | Take after the first QB tier | Designed runs returning with the starters |
| Mark Andrews | FFN recorded a 50.6% snap rate late in 2025 | Wait beyond the weekly-starter group | A clear rise in first-team passing-down snaps |
The useful split isn’t star versus role player. It’s concentrated work versus a familiar ceiling that now needs fresh support. Henry and Flowers already have the jobs their fantasy cases require. Jackson’s overall talent remains unquestioned, but his route to separating from other quarterbacks runs through passing volume and rushing use. Andrews has to get back onto the field before his touchdown history can carry the argument.
Lamar Jackson needs the ball to stay in his hands
Jackson is still the player defenses fear most. Fantasy scoring asks a slightly different question: how many plays end with him throwing or running? FFN’s 2025 role record shows that answer dipping late. Across Baltimore’s final five games, he averaged 21.4 pass attempts and 4.2 carries. During his final three, those figures fell to 13.3 throws and 2.7 rushes while his playing time also declined.
Availability and game conditions contributed to that finish, so those numbers aren’t a straight-line forecast. They do show what happens when Baltimore can close games through Henry and Jackson isn’t stacking designed runs on top of his passing production. Quarterback efficiency is wonderful. Fantasy separation usually needs opportunity too.
FFN projects 408 pass attempts and 85 rushes for Jackson in 2026 and ranks him QB2 as of August 12. That’s a strong call, and the rushing assumption is doing important work. I’m willing to take Jackson once the first quarterback tier begins to disappear. I won’t draft him as though 2024-level volume is guaranteed by his name.
Preseason rushing totals won’t settle this. Coaches don’t need their franchise quarterback absorbing August hits. The better clues are formation and intent: read-option looks, movement throws that give him a run-pass choice, and whether the first unit keeps the full playbook open. We’re looking for evidence that his legs remain a designed weapon, even when the sensible decision is to hand off or step out of bounds.
Mark Andrews has a playing-time problem
Andrews can still beat a defense in the red zone. The harder question is whether he’ll be on the field often enough between scoring chances. FFN’s role data put him at 3.6 targets a game with a 50.6 percent snap rate over Baltimore’s closing five-game stretch.
His playing time slipped to 48 percent in Weeks 16-18 after sitting at 59 percent during the previous three appearances. The direction matters as much as the endpoint: fewer snaps leave fewer routes available when the team is already limiting pass volume.
Half-time deployment is a dangerous foundation for a fantasy starter in a low-volume passing game. A touchdown can cover it for a week. The weeks without one expose every missing route. Baltimore’s preference for running near the goal line tightens the margin further because Henry or Jackson can end the possession without creating a target for any tight end.
FFN ranks Andrews outside the top 12 at his position across the primary scoring formats as of August 12. Keep him there until the first-team offense shows more. The important evidence isn’t one camp touchdown or a long catch against backups. It’s Andrews staying on the field with Flowers in obvious passing situations and remaining part of the personnel group when Baltimore speeds up.
Andrews still has an affirmative path. He becomes interesting if his starter snap rate pushes back toward two-thirds and the team consistently uses him on passing downs. His red-zone skill would then sit on top of enough routes to create a weekly floor. Another role near 50 percent leaves managers trying to guess which Sunday contains the touchdown.
What changes the call
Jesse Minter is Baltimore’s new head coach, with Doyle coordinating the offense. The team’s 2025 profile describes what they inherited. It doesn’t prove what they’ll keep. More early-down passing could raise Jackson’s attempt ceiling and give Andrews additional routes. It might also distribute targets more widely and reduce Flowers’ concentration. A different backfield rotation could preserve Henry for January at the expense of weekly fantasy volume.
FFN’s 2025 role data also show the real vulnerability here: scheme changes don’t lift every Raven together. More passing helps the quarterback before it necessarily helps the lead receiver. More tight-end personnel can put Andrews on the field while also creating work for Likely. Fewer Henry carries could improve Jackson’s possession count without producing more designed rushing.
We should expect the new staff to change something. The risk is that Henry loses the goal-line work while starter targets spread out and Jackson’s designed rushing stays muted. In that version of the offense, Baltimore produces fewer concentrated fantasy jobs and every recommendation above needs to move down.
The first clue may be a boring third-and-6. Henry’s location, Flowers’ alignment, Jackson’s option, and Andrews’ assignment can reveal more about Baltimore’s fantasy shape than whether the pass lands in anyone’s hands.