ExtremeRavens Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago CLEVELAND — It didn’t take long for Mark Andrews to have an impact. Seven plays into his rookie season in 2018 and on a second-and-10 from the Buffalo Bills’ 31-yard line, the Ravens tight end ran downfield at M&T Bank Stadium, curled toward the middle and hauled in a play-action pass from Joe Flacco for an 11-yard gain. Andrews popped up, extended his right arm to signal first down and five plays later Baltimore scored a touchdown. The Ravens went on to crush the Bills, 47-3, with the third-round pick out of Oklahoma finishing with three catches on four targets for 31 yards. Sunday at Huntington Bank Field against the Browns, Andrews continued to etch his name into the team’s record book. With an 11-yard pass from Lamar Jackson on Baltimore’s opening possession of the first quarter, he set the franchise record for career receiving yards with 5,785 yards, breaking wide receiver Derrick Mason’s mark of 5,777. The grab was his 30th of the season for 255 yards. It was also just the latest stamp on a career that will one day perhaps lead to his being enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and certainly an induction into Baltimore’s ring of honor. Andrews already holds franchise records for career touchdowns (56) as well as catches (107) and receiving yards (1,361) in a season, which he set in 2021. He also needs just six more receptions to break Mason’s franchise mark of 471. Not that the eighth-year veteran was focused on that coming into the pivotal AFC North showdown with Baltimore a game back of the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers and winners of three straight. “I’m not looking really too much into that,” Andrews said earlier this week, “but I’m just focusing on this game, executing at the highest level and continuing to grow from week to week. We’re excited about the challenge this week. “Obviously, I’ve been fortunate to have great teammates and be in a great division and be a part of a great organization. I’m just trying to feed off that and help make plays, and that’s been a part of it.” Mason set both marks over six seasons between 2005 and 2010 catching the bulk of his passes from Kyle Boller, Steve McNair and Flacco. No teammate has been more paramount to Andrews’ success than Jackson, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player who also entered the NFL in 2018 and took over as the team’s starter almost eight years ago to the day Sunday, also in Week 11. Coming into this week, the two had played 101 games together. Andrews totaled 399 catches for 4,993 yards and 53 touchdowns during that span and has twice led the team in receiving for a season. Andrews was also named an All-Pro in 2021 and selected to the Pro Bowl the same year for the second of what has been three occasions, along with 2019 and 2022. Five times, he has finished a season with at least 55 catches and at least 673 yards and twice he has reached double digits in touchdowns, with 10 in 2019 and 11 last season. “There’s a lot of love between Lamar and I,” Andrews said. “and there’s this unwritten, unspoken type of connection that, from the second that we got here — and not really knowing each other — that’s always been there. But being able to play and grow and become men in the same last eight years together has been nothing short of special.” How much longer Jackson’s and Andrews’ partnership continues, however, remains to be seen. Andrews, 30, is due to be a free agent after this season. With ascending fourth-year tight ends Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar each in the final year of their rookie contracts, it’s unlikely that Baltimore will be able to retain all three. This season, Andrews came into the Browns game second on the team in catches and receiving yards. But his 8.4 yards per reception is the lowest mark of his tenure after averaging at least 11.6 yards per catch each of the previous seven seasons. He also has two or fewer catches in four games and last season infamously dropped a pass on a 2-point conversion in a crushing 29-27 divisional round loss to the Bills. But the chemistry between Andrews and Jackson will continue, at least for now, and the tight end’s contributions and big plays will be remembered long after his career in Baltimore ends, whenever that is. “Man, he’s kind of a gamer,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said a few weeks into Andrews’ career in 2018. “He kind of steps up and makes plays. I think that’s what we thought we had when we drafted him. He works very hard in practice, and to see that show up in the games is good. “He’s a very big plus for us.” And he’ll go down as one half of one of the greatest tight end-quarterback combinations to ever play. This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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