The Ravens are a fantasy football manager’s worst nightmare

The Ravens are a fantasy football manager’s worst nightmare.

In Week 1, Isaiah Likely erupted for 26.1 points in point-per-reception leagues before tumbling to 4.6 and 1.4 in Weeks 2 and 3. Mark Andrews see-sawed with 3.4, 9.1 and 0.0. Derrick Henry climbed from 10.6 points to 16.6 to a show-stopping 30.4. Zay Flowers debuted at 11.1, followed by 22.1 then 5.3.

It’s hard to pin down such production the way the Ravens’ offense is blueprinted, shape-shifting from week to week. The kind that, at its best, is hard to stop in the NFL. But with one sentence, coach John Harbaugh crushed the aspirations of fantasy managers excited about having drafted a skill position player from Baltimore.

“Guys will play different amounts [in] different games with our different guys that we have,” he said matter-of-factly. Cue the world’s tiniest violin.

Baltimore’s most confounding position? Its tight ends, Andrews and Likely.

Andrews has been quarterback Lamar Jackson’s most reliable target for the better part of half a decade. He’s rostered in 98.4% of ESPN fantasy leagues. In most 12-person PPR leagues, he was selected before the end of the fourth round.

Then he was a nonfactor in two of the Ravens’ first three games. His fantasy goose egg in Dallas led to one fan’s snarky post on X : “I’m in a fantasy football league [with] my co-workers and one of the guys asked the team ‘anyone want left tackle Mark Andrews? I’ll pay someone five dollars and give them Mark Andrews.'”

ESPN fantasy football analyst Field Yates said of Andrews’ usage in the Ravens passing game: “I have nothing to add other than it royally sucks.”

Meanwhile, when Likely eclipsed 100 yards on double-digit targets in Week 1, the projected 27th-ranked tight end jumped from being rostered in less than 10% of ESPN leagues to over 75%. Surely those who snagged him from the waiver wire were giddy about starting Likely henceforth. That is, until he combined for three catches over the next two games.

Harbaugh joked with reporters earlier this week over the subject of playing time.

“Didn’t I bring this up a week or two ago?” he said. “It’ll go one way, and then someone wouldn’t play, then that question will be, ‘Why didn’t that guy play?’ That’s probably going to be something that’ll be every week.”

For an NFL team trying to win games, leaning in different directions against different opponents is a luxury when it works. Not so much for a fantasy manager trying to set their lineup on Sunday morning, guessing who might produce.

Baltimore’s 28-25 win over Dallas was another mind-bender for Ravens pass-catchers in PPR leagues.

Wide receivers Flowers and Rashod Bateman tied for a team-high three receptions and combined for fewer than 50 yards. That’s because the Ravens rode their ground game for a collective 274 yards, nearly 100 more than either of their first two games. Much of that came behind Henry and Jackson.

“You’re going to use your different weapons week to week. If you look at the Chiefs, it definitely starts with Patrick [Mahomes],” Harbaugh said earlier this month, after returning from Kansas City. “They’re probably more established with that right now with their guys that they have, but [Isiah] Pacheco gets the ball. Where was [Travis] Kelce? He didn’t get the ball as many times this game, so it’s just going to be game by game like that in any good offense.”

Henry left fantasy managers a bit weary after Week 1, too. But his carries climbed week over week and his yardage multiplied. That stiff-arm in Dallas sparked a sense of vindication in Ravens fans that the aging running back is, in fact, still fending off Father Time.

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In response to a question about the 30-year-old Henry’s 2024 workload, Harbaugh said the strength of talent elsewhere “kind of spread the workload out naturally.” In other words, he’s still capable of jaw-dropping performances. But from a fantasy perspective, it might take more advanced study to predict when those might happen.

Jackson is the outlier. His pair of 25-point outings sandwiching 16.38 against Las Vegas are a good indication of his steady production. Like Harbaugh said of Mahomes, Baltimore’s offense starts with its reigning NFL Most Valuable Player.

Beyond that, when setting your fantasy lineup, start a Raven at your own risk.

“There’ll always be somebody that didn’t get the ball thrown to them or didn’t get many touches or wasn’t on the field as much,” Harbaugh said. “It’s probably going to be a part of the game plan each week — and a lot of it is how the game goes, too.”