Zay Flowers injury update: Ravens WR active for Christmas game vs. Texans

Zay Flowers will be active for Wednesday’s Christmas Day matchup against the Texans, the Ravens announced. He was questionable due to a shoulder injury.

Flowers didn’t practice Sunday or Monday due to the issue, and was a limited participant on Tuesday. However, he will be good to go for Wednesday’s game, which will be the second half of Netflix’s NFL doubleheader.

Zay Flowers is once again an important part of the Ravens’ offensive attack this season. He enters Week 17 as the team leader with 71 receptions for 1,016 yards and four touchdowns as Lamar Jackson’s favorite target. His status is pivotal for Baltimore, which is gearing up for a potential playoff preview against Houston.

The Ravens and Texans both announced their inactives for Wednesday’s matchup. Baltimore will be without Justice Hill after he suffered a scary injury last week and was quickly ruled out afterward with a concussion. Houston is also down wide receiver Tank Dell the rest of the season. He went on injured reserve following a gruesome knee injury suffered last week.

Baltimore Ravens

• CB Jalyn Armour-Davis
• WR Nelson Agholor
• DB Marcus Williams
• RB Justice Hill
• EDGE Adisa Isaac
• OL Nick Samac

Houston Texans

• LB Devin White
• EDGE Jerry Hughes
• OL Shaq Mason
• OL Juice Scruggs
• WR Diontae Johnson
• DT Folorunso Fatukasi

After losing Dell, the Texans brought in Diontae Johnson – who was released by the Ravens last week – and are starting to work him into the offense. But with a short week, he will be inactive against his now-former team on Wednesday.

Houston will be Johnson’s third team of the season after starting the year with Carolina. The Ravens acquired him at the trade deadline, but he recorded just one catch in four games in Baltimore before getting his release. All told, he has 363 yards with the two teams.

But as the Texans look toward the postseason, they opted to look for help via free agency. ESPN’s Adam Schefter explained why the time was right to make a move.

“Diontae Johnson will be spending Christmas in the company of the Ravens, with Houston hosting his former team on Wednesday,” Schefter said on ESPN. “Obviously, the Texans lost Tank Dell for the season, they’ve lost Stefon Diggs for the season. They need help and they now have put in a claim for Diontae Johnson.

“There are a number of teams that were considering putting in a claim. It will be interesting to see which teams behind the Texans may have also put in claims because I suspect there will be at least one other that put in a claim for Diontae Johnson, but it doesn’t matter because Houston had priority, Houston gets Diontae Johnson and Houston was looking for some added help for the postseason, and found it in the form of the former Ravens wide receiver.”