After a dismal 2023 season, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman rebounded to post the best season of his career in 2024. Is there potential for even more growth in 2025? Should fantasy football managers target the Ravens’ WR late in fantasy drafts?
Rashod Bateman Fantasy Outlook
After three seasons of underwhelming performance, I will be the first to admit writing off Bateman. Before 2024, Bateman never averaged more than 8.9 fantasy points per game in a season. In 2023, he averaged just 4.8 PPG.
Over his four years in the NFL, Bateman’s usage has been difficult to understand. He’s alternated years of being a low aDOT guy with being a splash play specialist.
Rashod Bateman pic.twitter.com/ByxDXtvdlU
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) February 26, 2025
In 2021 and 2023, Bateman averaged 11.2 and 11.5 yards per reception. In 2022 and 2024, he averaged 19.0 and 16.8 yards per reception. Unsurprisingly, those were his two most productive seasons.
Bateman is never going to be a target hog. He will never be a guy who pushes 14 PPG that you can trust in your lineup weekly. But if he can average 11-12 PPG, that can be used in fantasy as a Flex play.
Bateman averaged a career-best 10.3 PPG last season. On the one hand, he did that on just a 15.9% target share, and when he was targeted on a mere 17.3% of his routes run. That suggests even a mild improvement in volume could lead to a WR3 season.
On the other hand, Bateman overperformed in fantasy relative to his volume. Any regression would put him back to where he was over the first three years of his career: the waiver wire.
The Ravens’ Offense Is Largely the Same
There’s a lot of turnover in the NFL. Teams change quickly. An offense can completely overhaul in just a couple of years. That’s not the case with the Ravens, though.
The addition of Derrick Henry last year helped relieve a lot of pressure on Lamar Jackson, but this team’s overall identity didn’t change.
The Ravens ran the ball 47% of the time in neutral game script in 2023. That was 50% last year. They’re always near the top of the league in run rate. As a result, even a 20% target share for Bateman would not be the same level of opportunity as the league average.
Flowers and Bateman are back as the top two receivers. Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely will share the TE role. The only main addition was DeAndre Hopkins, who is nothing more than a role player at this point in his career.
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Bateman’s WR65 average draft position (ADP) implies fantasy managers are not buying what he did last year, and with good reason. Bateman caught just 45 passes. Yet, nine of them went for touchdowns. That’s an absurd 20% touchdown rate, which is unsustainable and not repeatable.
I have Bateman at WR61. At best, he’s the third option in a low-volume passing attack. At worst, he falls behind both tight ends and DHop, rendering him completely irrelevant.
Mason LeBeau‘s Rashod Bateman Projection
Did we finally get the rare year-four breakout from former first-round pick Rashod Bateman? Kinda, not really, but it is encouraging to see him play good ball. At just 25, it’s very possible for him to continue his ascension, especially if we see regression from TE Mark Andrews or RB Derrick Henry.Â
While he certainly looked more the part than he had previously, Bateman didn’t see a crazy change in usage, just better efficiency from himself and Lamar Jackson as a passer. He has a similar workload as he did in his rookie season, 72 targets and 45 receptions, only this time had cleared his previous yardage by 200, and went from a single touchdown to nine in 2024.Â
Perhaps that’ll earn him more trust in this offense, but even if he does earn it, it won’t be his offense. WR Zay Flowers and Andrews will be the primary targets, and veteran WR DeAndre Hopkins should factor into the redzone. Moreso, Jackson probably won’t throw for 41 touchdowns again. I wouldn’t put it past him; he’s had 36 in a season before, but he tend to throw closer to ~25.Â
Bateman is going right near the end of drafts, so using your last pick on a WR in his prime, coming off a great season, and tied to a great offense is not a bad idea. You may go a little mad trying to guess which weeks are his and which aren’t, but he can serve as an admirable fill-in option and possibly quality trade bait.Â
