The Baltimore Ravens are wrapping up mini-camp, and the next time the team will be on the field together is at training camp in July. This is the time to work on fundamentals, iron out any flaws, and improve techniques.
Tackling, ball security, and other fundamentals worked on at mini camp and training camp are perfect times to improve on those skills. One player, however, who may not use the time to change their technique is Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers.
Flowers has used the same technique for carrying the football since high school, and in a recent interview, he shed light on why.
Hand Injury
Zay Flowers is the Ravens’ undisputed number one wide receiver, and this offseason the Ravens picked up his fifth-year option for $28 million and kept him under contract through the 2027 season. While Flowers is an electric player, tallying 1,211 yards last season, one area of criticism has been his ball security.
Flowers famously fumbled before crossing the goal line in the 2023 AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs, a significant swing in momentum. Until this season, though, Flowers had never lost a fumble in a regular-season game. In 2025 alone, Flowers lost three fumbles.
On the June 3 episode of the “Off The Clock” podcast hosted by former NFL players Joshua Bellamy and Eddie Jackson, Flowers discussed why he only holds the football in one hand.
“I had surgery on my hand. I re-break my hand every year,” Flowers said. I’ve been re-breaking my hand since high school. Every time I catch it, it would never go in my left [hand], it would always go in my right. So, I’m on the left side of the field, and I catch the ball that’s going in my right. My grip isn’t strong enough. I don’t feel comfortable running with it in my left hand. .. But this year though them boys on me like ‘catch it, put in the left hand.’”
Flowers Fumbling Issues
Last season, Flowers’ most egregious fumble came during a productive game against the eventual AFC Champion New England Patriots. Flowers had seven catches for 84 yards and a touchdown against the Patriots, but his fumble on the final drive of the game proved costly in a 28-24 defeat.
Former Ravens head coach John Harbaugh commented on Flowers’ ball security after the game. Geoffrey A Knox of Ravens Wire wrote about Harbaugh’s remarks in his December 22 article.
“I just continue to coach it, that’s all you really can do. It’s going to be important,” Harbaugh said. “That’s the most important thing for all the guys, and nobody knows that – I mean, Zay [Flowers] knows it. He’ll be the most distraught guy about it.”
Harbaugh then harped on the importance of protecting the football.
“But with that being said, you have to protect the football,” Harbaugh continued. “We all have to protect the football. That’s a lesson that has to be understood. If you want to play winning football – it’s been that way; it’s been that way for a long time in football. It’s been that way for a long time here [in Baltimore]. And we have not done a good enough job of that on offense this year.”
Flowers is on the cusp of superstardom at wide receiver, but to reach that level, he’ll need to make sure he’s keeping the football secure, even if he’s only using one hand to do so.
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