For over three decades, the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers have engaged in one of the most brutal and storied rivalries in the National Football League. Hard hits, tight games, and genuine bad blood have defined this classic AFC North matchup.
However, for the younger generation of Ravens players, the landscape of NFL animosity is shifting away from divisional foes and toward the heavyweights of the broader conference.
Recently, explosive Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers shed some light on this changing dynamic, revealing that his biggest grudges aren’t actually directed at Pittsburgh.
Why Zay Flowers Says the Steelers Aren’t the Ravens’ Biggest Rival
The revelation came during “4th and South with Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette.” Landry, who spent crucial years of his career battling in the AFC North as a primary weapon for the Cleveland Browns, is no stranger to the sheer physicality of the division.
During the show, Landry candidly shared his lingering frustrations from his playing days, recalling how his Browns squads constantly struggled to overcome the dominance of both the Ravens and the Steelers.
Landry mentioned how the Steelers and Ravens continue to play some brutally physical games. The battle to the postseason for the AFC North often runs through one of these two very similar cities. The Steelers ended the Ravens’ postseason dreams in the 2025 season, and yet Flowers said they aren’t the biggest rival anymore.
Flowers’ response offered a refreshing, brutally honest look at how modern players view their opponents. For the dynamic young receiver, the real enemies reside outside the immediate division.
“A little bit more Kansas City and Buffalo. Yeah,” Flowers said, quickly shifting the focus to the Chiefs and the Bills. “Than I feel the Steelers, cuz since I’ve been in league… we won the division more than the Steelers did. 100% more than anybody.”
Flowers, who had a PFSB WR Impact metric score of 86.2 in 2025, ranking him seventh overall, burst onto the scene as a rookie first-round draft pick in 2023. He has experienced a very different reality than Ravens defensive legends like Ray Lewis or Ed Reed did in the 2000s. Under former head coach John Harbaugh and superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson, the Ravens consistently found regular-season success in the AFC North.
Instead, their ultimate roadblocks to Super Bowl glory have repeatedly been the perennial AFC powerhouses that stand in their way during the playoffs. For Flowers, the rising animosity stemmed purely from competitive frustration on the biggest stages.
“And the only ones that been beating us was the Bills and Kansas City,” Flowers continued. “And I ain’t even have no hate towards them at first, but they kept beating us. So I’m like, now I’m mad. I’m mad.”
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This candid sentiment perfectly encapsulates the natural evolution of modern NFL rivalries. While geographic proximity and historical turf wars once dictated the league’s fiercest feuds, today’s most intense grudges are often forged in the crucible of the postseason.
Until the Ravens can consistently overcome the Chiefs and Bills when the lights are brightest, those two formidable franchises will clearly remain squarely at the top of Flowers’ hit list.
