NFL Transfers & Rumours
Zay Flowers Extension Talk Heats Up, but NFL Sources Say ‘Not a $30M Guy’
Baltimore Ravens v Buffalo Bills by Bryan M. Bennett | Getty Images
Ravens top receiver Zay Flowers is up for a contract extension and is set to make $28M in 2027 on his fifth-year option.
Numerous NFL contract negotiators believe anything more than $30M for that receiver would be bad business for the Ravens, though media speculation is putting him in the $ 35M-plus category. And some have suggested $40M, which is territory reserved for the best in the game like Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase.
Flowers led the Ravens in receiving and held their passing game afloat in a bad 2025 campaign for the team, but he is also a relative non-factor in the red zone and the end zone, and scoring touchdowns matters when it comes to talking about the true No. 1 wideouts in the game.
“He’s not a $28M guy, so that’s a bad precedent,” one NFL contract expert said. “That’s a win for Flowers.”
Size Matters In The NFL
Another NFL personnel executive said: “His lack of size is a big deal. It’s a separator… He’s a really good football player, but I couldn’t pay him $30M a year.”
Flowers is outside the top 30 among all wide receivers during his three years in the NFL in both red-zone targets and endzone targets.
As top NFL analyst Brian Baldinger told SportsBoom: “it’s just hard to find Zay Flowers down the field… Would you rather have a big power forward or a small power forward?”
Many believe Flowers would be smart to try to secure an additional $30M a year for three-plus years and call it a win.
And they doubt the Ravens will want to go above that threshold, even as important as the playmaker is to them. There is also an additional injury risk with a slight frame.
It will be an interesting negotiation regardless, and comes at the same time the team is struggling to get quarterback Lamar Jackson signed to an extension.
Flowers had a career-best 1200 receiving yards last season, in a year in which no other Ravens pass catcher had even 500 receiving yards, but still registered just five touchdowns and has never produced more than five touchdowns in a season.
Not hitting paydirt on Sunday as much as desired will impact his ability to hit paydirt in this negotiation.
Editor's Insight
Ravens are unlikely to entertain anything near $35M–$40M unless the market fully resets. A more realistic outcome is a deal landing just under or around the $30M mark, or a wait-and-see approach into the fifth-year option. The lean here is that Baltimore plays it conservative, which nudges the “no extension yet” outcome slightly ahead in any betting view.
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La Canfora has covered over 20 Super Bowls and League Meetings and NFL drafts, building a wide network of sources throughout all aspects of the game. He was an award winning print journalist as well, working at The Detroit Free Press and The Baltimore Sun prior to his first stint at The Washington Post. He has covered sporting events around the world, including two Winter Olympics and all of the 2006 World Cup. He attended his first NFL game in 1978, and would soon kindle what has become a lifelong love and appreciation of the sport. La Canfora is also a professional handicapper, specializing in the NFL, creating a daily sports wagering game show - "Wanna Bet?" He also hosts nationally broadcast NFL radio shows in the US, as well as a daily sports radio show in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.