Ravens Insider: Inside the Ravens’ somber and reflective locker room clean-out

ExtremeRavens · 2025-01-20T21:38:29Z

The missing piece of this short-lived Ravens playoff run was swarmed by cameras and microphones beside his locker stall not 15 hours after they were eliminated in Buffalo. Zay Flowers said missing a pair of playoff games took a toll on him.

Flowers suffered a knee injury Week 18 that sidelined him for both playoff games — the first absences of his two-year career. Baltimore’s Pro Bowl wide receiver had his sights set on a return next week in Kansas City. He could all but watch that plan crumble before his eyes.

“It was killing me, for sure,” Flowers said, tucked under a gray hoodie and designer coat. “I want to be out there every game. I want to go through everything they go through.”

What the Ravens went through was a gutting 27-25 loss at Highmark Stadium, their season wrapped up prematurely courtesy of the Buffalo Bills. Monday afternoon’s locker room clean-out at the team’s Owings Mills facility was an extension of the previous night’s somber spirit.

Several players returned for exit meetings and to retrieve their belongings.

The most notable and surprising absence was tight end Mark Andrews. He was not available to speak with reporters after dropping the game-tying pass and did not answer questions a day later, meaning he likely won’t comment on the matter until the spring.

Fullback Pat Ricard offered some next-day context in his place.

“We went into the tight end room. [Tight ends coach] George [Godsey] spoke about the whole season, just about us as a group,” he said. “Mark is a complete competitor, so he’ll be fine. We all know he’ll be fine. He is the heart and soul of this team. He has won big games for us. He will continue to win big games here. He’s the guy to go to in big situations. I know he is going [to] be hurting for a while. He is going to continue to do great things. In my eyes, he’s going to be a future Hall of Famer, just an all-time Raven. I think time will heal all things.”

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The snapshot of Andrews, curled up beside the right pylon with a football squirting loose from his grasp, won’t soon be forgotten. Teammates came to his defense, calling it “unfair” to pin the loss on him, particularly after one of the best seasons of his career. Fairly or unfairly, it’s how this season will be remembered. Lamar Jackson’s typical play-extending touchdown pass to Isaiah Likely moments before will fade into the ether, behind a shadow of what could have been for a team that had much greater plans.

It was one mistake in a loss full of them: five penalties, a shaky first-half defensive showing in a game in which starting fast was a requirement, and a pair of costly Jackson turnovers.

“You go the whole season and Lamar do what he do, run around the backfield and make plays,” Flowers said, “and then everybody like, ‘Oh, he great. He this. He that.’ And then he mess up one time and now everybody don’t want him to do what he do. Just like Mark. He catches everything. He dropped two. It’s football, sometimes that happens.”

Inside the locker room, players exchanged helmets to collect signatures. There was a line to sign Michael Pierce’s. Derrick Henry made a brief pit stop to dig through a deep box of cleats. Rashod Bateman and Ar’Darius Washington snuck in and out. Patrick Mekari spoke to reporters with five bottles of wine perched beside him.

On left, Baltimore Ravens’ Derrick Henry cleans out his locker a day after Sunday night’s AFC divisional round playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills. (Kim Hairston/Staff)

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On left, Baltimore Ravens’ Derrick Henry cleans out his locker a day after Sunday night’s AFC divisional round playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills. (Kim Hairston/Staff)

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“It’s tough to make it this far and not get to the Super Bowl,” Mekari said. “But either way we got another opportunity next year. Hopefully a better outcome next year.”

Across the locker room, Nnamdi Madubuike reflected on a season that “stings.”

The defensive tackle who finished the year with 6 1/2 sacks and a season-high seven tackles in Buffalo hasn’t quite felt the loss fully sink in. The wound is too fresh. But “you just process it one day at a time. Still trying to cope with it, returning our iPads today, it felt like we should have kept going.”

Anticipation for a deep playoff run began in the offseason in the eager buildup to a season pairing a two-time Most Valuable Player award-winning quarterback and surefire first-ballot Hall of Fame running back. Jackson and Henry were cornerstones in Baltimore turning around a sluggish, mojo-less 0-2 start and finishing the regular season with four consecutive wins to steal the AFC North crown from Pittsburgh.

“For us, it was a really good, developmental year,” running back Justice Hill said, “just going through a lot of adversity early on, fighting through adversity, fighting through being down and coming back and winning games. That’s something we hadn’t done that much since I’ve been here, so I feel like it was a good building year for us. That’s going to carry us into next year.”

This locker clean-out day was one for reflection and page-turning.

There’s some uncertainty around who might return and who might be wearing a different jersey by summertime. For now, players are still stomaching what happened in Orchard Park.

“The results are the results,” Madubuike said. “You’re just processing it all and just trying to move forward with a positive light and do better.”

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.

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Ravens Insider: Inside the Ravens’ somber and reflective locker room clean-out

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