Baltimore Ravens 2022 Fantasy Football Rookie Roundup

The Baltimore Ravens took a step back last season, thanks to an injury to quarterback Lamar Jackson. Then, this draft, their offense took another step back. Wide receiver Marquise Brown had quietly expressed dissatisfaction with his role on offense, and the Ravens acquiesced to his trade request. Luckily, the Ravens will get a whole running back room back this year, as well as two tight ends and a running back taken in this draft. What can we expect from the newest Baltimore Ravens?

FULL BALTIMORE RAVENS DRAFT RESULTS

Round 4, Pick 128 Overall: Charlie Kolar, Tight End, Iowa State (6’7” 252 lbs)

Depth Chart:
TE1:        Mark Andrews
TE2:        Nick Boyle
TE3:        Charlie Kolar/Isaiah Likely
TE5:        Josh Oliver

TALENT

Chuck Kolar should fit in nicely with the blob once he gets himself established in the NFL. He’s not exceptionally fast, and he’s very much not agile, given his size and weight it feels a bit much like he’s trying to turn a tug boat when he changes directions. Iowa State also did him dirty by consistently putting him on whip routes, which he just doesn’t have the agility to pull off. He’s good up the seams with decent-to-good hands, but he is with several warts. First, the man cannot block to save his life. He just gets swallowed up by defenders. That’s because he plays significantly underweight, getting abused and pushed around by DL and CB alike. Iowa State lined him up inline, in the backfield, in the slot, and out wide but in the NFL it’s more-than-likely Kolar primarily gets used as a rotational depth piece in the slot, due to his shortcomings in blocking.

2022 OPPORTUNITY

I don’t feel particularly strongly about rookie tight ends in fantasy football, especially ones who I don’t really see as exceptional talents. Kolar fits that bill to a T. It’s unlikely that he finds significant targets behind Mark Andrews, and that is partly due to Mark Andrews and partly due to Baltimore’s offensive reticence toward throwing the football.

2022 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK

Kolar is a rookie tight end with an above-average, but still marginal talent level; he isn’t someone that I am looking at in any fantasy football redraft leagues.

TALENT

2022 OPPORTUNITY

2022 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK

Round 4, Pick 139 Overall: Isaiah Likely, Tight End, Coastal Carolina (6’5” 245 lbs)

Depth Chart:
TE1:        Mark Andrews
TE2:        Nick Boyle
TE3:        Charlie Kolar/Isaiah Likely
TE5:        Josh Oliver

TALENT

Likely is… likely the next in the middle class of tight ends (if he can get out from under Mark Andrews); your Daltons Schultz, your Austins Hooper, or your Dawsons Knox. It all really depends on how his team in the NFL chooses to use him for his fantasy football potential (but that’s true of all tight ends). When I watch Likely, the first thing I notice is that he is quite beefy, though he doesn’t pop off the screen like Jelani Woods. He’s also pretty athletic, especially for his size, and is a great pass catcher. Unfortunately, he struggles with blocking at times because he’s a converted wide receiver (though he is willing, and is better than Charlie Kolar in this regard). Still, I like him a lot as a guy to draft and stash in your fantasy football dynasty leagues.

2022 OPPORTUNITY

I can’t find a realm where Likely gets targets behind Mark Andrews (brace yourself, this will sound a lot like Kolar’s outlook). The Ravens don’t pass the ball a lot, and even though they lost Marquise Brown this offseason, those targets are likely headed toward Rashod Bateman rather than a fourth-round tight end.

2022 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK

Likely is a rookie tight end with some underlying pass-catching talent, and the Ravens are already talking him up. He could have a path to viability in year one, but that would take a Mark Andrews injury to come to fruition.

TALENT2022 OPPORTUNITY

2022 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK

Round 6, Pick 196 Overall: Tyler Badie, Running Back, Missouri (5’8” 197 lbs)

Depth Chart:
RB1:       J.K. Dobbins
RB2:       Gus Edwards
RB3:       Mike Davis
RB4:       Justice Hill
RB5:       Tyler Badie

TALENT

Badie has good vision and great burst and he uses these to simply ensure that he does not come near any would-be tacklers in the open field. He is a slashing running back who has great contact balance and who sheds tacklers with relative ease. Badie is an electric runner who is great in the open field with the ball in his hands, and Missouri ran a lot of screens with him to maximize that skill set. He has a ton of focus drops, so he will need to clean that up. Badie is a shifty and patient little guy, and I’m excited to see how he gets used in the NFL. He could be extremely useful to a team that acknowledges that he has trouble up the middle in traffic and schemes him away from that. Almost all of these things were literally what I wrote about Kenneth Gainwell.

2022 OPPORTUNITY

Badie doesn’t fit anything that the Ravens currently do. They threw the ball to running backs just 4.2 times per game over the last three years, and I don’t see all four of those going to Badie. In fact, J.K. Dobbins likely gets 2.5 targets per game, leaving the rest of the Ravens backfield to fight over the other 1.7 targets per game. And targets are the only area where Badie would outproduce other backs already on the roster. That doesn’t bode well for his 2022 opportunities.

2022 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK

The Ravens drafting Badie doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. They don’t throw the ball to the running back, and that is what Badie would do best in the NFL. He seems like a stylistic mismatch for the Ravens, who they took purely because they could not pass on the value. I doubt he gets enough touches to matter in 2022, outside of some sort of 2021-level decimation of the Ravens’ running back room (*knocks on every conceivable wooden surface*).

TALENT

2022 OPPORTUNITY

2022 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK

Do you want a Five Goodell grade? Then check out these links!

Discord!
Podcast!
Patreon!
Twitch!