Ravens Wr Depth Chart Underwood Brown And The Tight End Who Keeps Taking Slants

Setting Up the Ravens Passing Attack

The Ravens wide receiver depth chart has been a moving target for most of the 2024 and 2025 offseasons, and if you are trying to figure out who is actually running what routes and where the production comes from, you need to stop looking at preseason roster rankings and start looking at snap distributions and route trees. Zay Flowers is still the clear WR1 in terms of snap share and target volume. Rashod Bateman returns from injury and takes the outside slot reps when healthy. Odell Beckham Jr. was brought in to stretch the field and win contested catch situations, but his role has always been situational rather than foundational. Beyond those names, the bottom of the depth chart features a rotating group including players like Deonte Hingis, Elisha Addo, and various practice squad call-ups depending on week-to-week health decisions. "Underwood Brown" does not appear to refer to two actual Ravens receivers on the current roster. If you encountered that phrasing in a fantasy context or a mock draft discussion, it is likely a misunderstanding or a reference to practice squad notation rather than active positional hierarchy. The tight end in question is almost certainly Isaiah Likely, who has become the go-to option on underneath crossing routes and slants out of the backfield and from two-tight end sets.

I ran into a specific problem last season when I was trying to project fantasy production based on route runs. I kept attributing slant targets to Mark Andrews because of his historical volume, but when I broke down the actual target data by formation, Likely was taking the majority of those seam and slant routes out of the same sets. Andrews was still getting targeted, but primarily on deeper crosses and corner routes when the defense loaded up on the middle. I had to adjust my model to separate routes by formation instead of by player name, which shifted my projections significantly for both tight ends. The core of what makes Baltimore's passing attack work is that Jackson forces defenses to respect the horizontal stretch before anything vertical develops. Flowers takes the quick game and the mesh concepts. The tight ends run the slants and the seams to create mismatches against linebackers. Beckham and any outside receiver are tasked with winning one-on-one deep or at the catch point. The play action is what opens everything else because the running game is credible enough that safeties cheat up, which creates windows on the intermediate routes. One thing people consistently miss about this offense is that the depth chart ranking does not predict target share in a straightforward way. Flowers gets targets because he runs the highest volume of routes from the slot, not because he is listed first. Bateman gets opportunities on the outside because the pass rush demands stretch protection. The tight end who runs slants gets his volume because of the scheme geometry, not because of his position label. You have to track route participation by formation and personnel grouping, not by depth chart order.

There are clear limitations to this system that you need to be aware of. If the offensive line struggles with pressure, the quick game becomes less effective and the slant timing gets disrupted. The Ravens rely heavily on Jackson making pre-snap reads and adjusting protections at the line. When that protection scheme breaks down, the middle of the field goes away first, and that is exactly where Likely operates. The passing game also becomes one-dimensional if the run game stalls, which happened in several games last season when injuries depleted the offensive line and the team fell behind in too many snaps. If you are trying to use this information for fantasy or betting purposes, the practical approach is to monitor pre-snap alignment and formation tendencies rather than relying on depth chart assumptions. Check the actual route combinations each week. Watch how many slants Likely runs out of different personnel groups. Look at whether the opposing defense is playing soft coverage or pressing, because that changes the effectiveness of the quick game dramatically. That process usually gives you a clearer picture than any published depth chart heading into game day. The Ravens wide receiver room is stable enough at the top with Flowers and Bateman, but the bottom is fluid. Expected competition continues throughout training camp and the early season. The tight end usage is more predictable than the receiver rotation, and that is where the most consistent production tends to come from in this system. I found that focusing on likely snap counts and formation-based route distribution was far more reliable than trying to project exact target shares for the wider receiver corps.