Baltimore Ravens Start-Sit: Week 8 Fantasy Advice for Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers, Isaiah Likely, and Others

The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.

This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Baltimore Ravens players heading into their matchup with the Chicago Bears to help you craft a winning lineup.

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Lamar Jackson, QB

The Ravens have one win. And yet, following Baltimore’s announcement that Lamar Jackson would be back in the lineup after the team’s bye week, he was back to the ninth choice on the MVP odds board.

That really tells you all you need to know.

Jackson has three top-5 finishes on his 2025 ledger, and with the confidence that this team showed almost two weeks ahead of this game, I’m inclined to think that he’s past the hamstring injury and adds to that total in this strong spot.

Schefter reported on Oct. 22 that Jackson is back at practice. If the Ravens are going to reinsert themselves into the playoff mix, it starts this weekend, and it starts because their former MVP is back terrorizing defenses.

Derrick Henry, RB

We got a tease before the buy, and now, with Jackson potentially back, we might be all the way back. Against the Rams in Week 6, Derrick Henry had one more carry of 5+ yards than he had in the month prior, and the spread suggests we are back to preseason Ravens with QB1 under center.

I’m in.

The volume came back before the buy because the Ravens were competitive, and if they are operating from a position of power, a vintage performance against the Bears is very much within the range of outcomes.

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The King has gone three straight games without a 15+ yard run, and I can’t imagine I’m alone in thinking that streak ends in a major way. Henry is my RB3 this week and could be a hinge player in DFS contests, with six teams on bye and ownership likely to gravitate toward the other two Tier 1 RBs on the main slate.

DeAndre Hopkins, WR

DeAndre Hopkins is used almost exclusively as a boundary receiver and is on the field for only 27.7% of Baltimore’s offensive snaps.

If that were all you knew and there was no name next to the profile, you wouldn’t be even remotely interested. Hopkins has had a great career, and if the Ravens are going to pull this season out of the flames, he will probably make a few plays along the way. But when they come and how much impact they make in our fantasy world is TBD at best.

Hopkins has yet to reach 6.5 expected points in a game this season, and that doesn’t project as likely to change any time soon.

Rashod Bateman, WR

I’m all in on wanting to bet on the Jackson comeback, but I’m not doing it by way of Rashod Bateman.

For his career, 25.3% of his targets have come deep down the field, and that’s a dangerous way to live in the best of situations. It gets even worse when you’re not exceptionally good at shaking free (pacing for a sub-17% target share in a third straight season).

Bateman can be left on waiver wires for now, and if we see him being featured in a new way after the bye, we can reassess. At the end of the day, this is a profile I’m more willing to be late on than early.

Zay Flowers, WR

Zay Flowers was huge in the Week 1 loss against the Bills (7-143-1), but despite consistent volume, he’s averaged just 56 yards since with zero scores.

Of course, the Jackson injury plays a big role in that. We’ve seen Flowers’ aDOT drop since his QB1 went down, an injury that coincided with the return of Isaiah Likely. His rate of slot snaps fell off a cliff in Week 6, with Likely as healthy as he’s been, but again, there is a chicken-and-egg thing at play with the shift in overall offensive philosophy.

This matchup doesn’t scare me, nor do the other receivers in this offense (Flowers has 34 receptions, and no other receiver on this team has more than 22 targets). That’s enough for me to rank him as a viable flex option in the return of Jackson in a spot where Baltimore could score 30 points without much trouble.

Isaiah Likely, TE

The Ravens have been outscored 98-33 in the three games since Likely debuted, a stretch that included the Jackson injury and two missed games from the former MVP. Game script and generalized ineptitude have been problems, but the split in field time at the tight end position has been nearly even.

Weeks 4-6

• Mark Andrews: 111 snaps and 66 routes run
• Likely: 107 snaps and 65 routes run

The team has had no issue running Likely out there, but he’s been out-targeted 17-3 by Andrews over that stretch as he works into game shape.

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With Jackson back in a favorable spot this week, I think we get a clearer picture of what the Ravens are thinking for the remainder of the season.

I don’t think you can play either with any level of confidence; that said, I do believe we get clarity, and that’ll give us an idea of how to play this situation moving forward.

Mark Andrews, TE

Likely has three targets this season, and while there has been a Jackson injury to navigate, the fact that we are in the back half of October and Mark Andrews has two top 25 finishes at the position is disturbing.

With a near-even snap share over the past month, I expect him to be prioritized this week, with him now through the preseason portion of his recovery from the offseason foot injury. Both are to be treated the same: rostered and benched.

Baltimore needs to get hot in a hurry, and this week should give us an idea of what tight end they view as most instrumental in doing so. Personally, I think Likely is that option, but check back next week after we get an all-important data point this weekend.

With Tanner Hudson concussed and Mike Gesicki missing the first of at least four games after being placed on IR, Noah Fant ran 37 routes to Drew Sample’s 17 and operated as a pretty clear TE1 in terms of the passing game.

There is an athletic profile to chase here, and with eight catches on eight Joe Flacco targets over the past two weeks, who am I to complain?

Add his name to the list of streamable tight ends as long as he has the primary role in downs. He’s caught at least four passes in four games this season, and while he’s yet to reach 45 receiving yards, he does seem to fill a chain-moving role that Chase Brown isn’t exactly thriving in.

This is a low-end option, but if I’m taking one tight end moving forward from the Thursday night bonanza, it’s Fant.