After months of waiting, the Baltimore Ravens are paying Zay Flowers like the elite wide receiver they believe he has become.
Flowers’ four-year, $140 million extension carries an average annual value of $35 million, tying Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson for fourth among the NFL’s highest-paid wide receivers. Only Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and Atlanta’s Drake London have higher annual averages.
Smith-Njigba leads the position at $42.15 million per season, followed by Chase at $40.25 million and London at approximately $35.26 million. Flowers and Jefferson are next at $35 million, placing the Ravens’ top receiver ahead of CeeDee Lamb, DK Metcalf, Garrett Wilson and A.J. Brown.
The contract represents a significant
commitment to a player who has recorded consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and earned two straight Pro Bowl selections. Flowers set a Ravens single-season record for a wide receiver with 1,211 receiving yards in 2025, providing Baltimore with the production needed to justify a place near the top of the market.
The rankings also reveal how aggressively Baltimore moved to retain its first homegrown No. 1 receiver. Flowers did not reset the position after Smith-Njigba’s record-setting extension, but he reached the same annual value as Jefferson, one of the league’s established standards at the position.
Flowers will carry greater expectations after receiving the extension. Baltimore is betting that his best football remains ahead of him as he enters his prime alongside Lamar Jackson.
This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Where Zay Flowers ranks among NFL’s highest-paid wide receivers
