A bad drop in production
The Ravens used first-round picks on wide receivers in 2021 (Rashod Bateman) and 2023 (Zay Flowers) and signed Odell Beckham Jr. this offseason. But as reliably as the sun rises and sets, so too do the Ravens struggle at incorporating wide receivers into their offense.
Through five games, the entire unit has just one touchdown catch, by Nelson Agholor. Tight end Mark Andrews has the Ravens’ other three receiving touchdowns. Flowers has 29 catches for 317 yards, but had bad drops in last week’s loss to the Steelers. Agholor has 14 catches for 170 yards and a TD, Beckham has just seven catches for 79 yards in three games as he battles injuries, and Bateman has eight catches for 67 yards in four games.
“Just laying in my bed, I’ve just been thinking about it,” Beckham said this week. “How can I get back on track? How can I be the person that I know that I’m capable of being? . . . A lot of things that I feel like I can just do better, and I just have to accept that challenge, embrace it and be exactly who I know I am.”
The Ravens are a sloppy 3-2 entering Sunday’s game against the Titans in London. They have dropped eight passes in just 143 pass attempts, giving Lamar Jackson the third-highest drop percentage in the NFL (5.6) behind the Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence (6.1) and the Lions’ Jared Goff (5.7). And they have committed multiple turnovers in three games, including three last week in a bad loss to the Steelers.
“We should be 5-0, I believe,” Jackson said this past week. “We just have to put up the points on the board, protect the ball.”
Watson calling own number
The Browns are trying to downplay it, but they may be having an issue with quarterback Deshaun Watson as he deals with a right shoulder injury. Head coach Kevin Stefanski said two weeks ago that Watson was cleared by team doctors to play in the Week 4 game against the Ravens, but Watson didn’t feel right during a pregame workout and took himself out of the lineup. Rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson got the start as the Browns lost a crucial division game, 28-3.
The Browns’ Week 5 bye gave Watson an extra week to heal, yet he was again ruled out for Sunday’s game against the 49ers, with P.J. Walker now getting the start. (As an aside — boy, did the Browns transition quickly from “Trading Josh Dobbs was the right move for Thompson-Robinson’s development,” as GM Andrew Berry said last week, to benching him behind Walker, a journeyman veteran.)
“A quarterback, when you have this type of injury, you have to make sure you’re able to drive the football, make all the throws,” Stefanski said this past week in defending Watson.
But the Browns have to be worried that Watson is in no rush to return to the field because his five-year contract is fully guaranteed for $230 million. He doesn’t have any incentive to play through an injury.
Extra points
The fashion police have come for Tyreek Hill. The Dolphins wide receiver said this past week that the league has fined him more than $100,000 with progressively punitive fines because he hasn’t worn the high socks that are part of an NFL uniform. He said he doesn’t wear the socks because they make it difficult for him to get a pregame IV, but no one likes losing six figures. “The NFL has certain rules that have been here way before I’ve been playing this game and they’ll be long after. From here on out, I’ve got to comply,” he said . . . Most teams don’t travel to a London game until late in the week, but the Ravens went out immediately after last Sunday’s game, and coach John Harbaugh gave players Tuesday off to explore London. When asked how it would feel to get his first win in London, Harbaugh replied, “It’d make me feel a lot better about the country. Every time I see a picture of Great Britain on the map, I have that memory of that game.” He’s referring to a 44-7 Ravens loss to the Jaguars in 2017 . . . The Seahawks definitely aren’t fazed by flying cross-country, as they will for Sunday’s game at Cincinnati. The Seahawks are 16-4 in the Eastern Time Zone since the start of the 2018 season (including playoffs), and 2-0 this year with wins over the Lions and Giants . . . Tough start to the season for Bill Belichick and his disciples. The Patriots are 32nd in points per game (11.0), Brian Daboll’s Giants are 31st (12.4), Josh McDaniels’s Raiders are 29th (15.8), and Mike Vrabel’s Titans are 26th (17.6) . . . Jalen Hurts has won 22 of his last 24 starts, with his only losses coming in the Super Bowl to the Chiefs and in Week 10 last year to the Commanders . . . Brock Purdy is the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to start 5-0 in both his first and second seasons.