Ravens’ Harbaugh Calls Mark Andrews a ‘Star’ amid Slow Start, Expects ‘Big Games’

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVSeptember 30, 2024

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Fear not, fantasy football players.

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh believes tight end Mark Andrews is going to snap out of his early season slump.

“Mark Andrews is going to definitely have big games here catching the ball,” Harbaugh said Monday, per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “We’re going to have a big passing game coming up here at some point in time soon. It’s hard to predict when it’s going to be because the games go where they go, and the ball goes where it goes and it’s just a competitive deal.

“… I could probably try to talk to Mark to make sure everything’s OK, but he would just look at me, ‘What are you talking to me about? Everything’s fine, everything’s good.’ Mark Andrews is a great player … Mark is a star. I mean there’s no doubt about it. The fact that we were doing well on offense and as a team and that part hasn’t been expressing itself in the last two weeks gets me kind of excited because that’s another weapon that we have that’s going to happen.”

While fantasy football players might not want to hear it, the impressive blocks by Andrews that Harbaugh also highlighted as “phenomenal” are critical to the team’s chances of winning.

And they were on full display during Sunday’s dominant 35-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. Baltimore ran for 271 yards and two touchdowns with Derrick Henry doing much of the heavy lifting with 199 yards and both of the scores.

But Andrews failed to record a reception for the second straight game and has just six catches for 65 yards and zero touchdowns on the season.

The production is a far cry from when he made three Pro Bowls in a four-year stretch from 2019 to 2022. He posted 107 catches for 1,361 yards and nine touchdowns in 2021 after finishing the 2019 season with a career-best 10 touchdown grabs.

However, Andrews was limited to 10 games last year because of an ankle injury before he returned for the AFC Championship Game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The 29-year-old hasn’t returned to the dominant stat-producer he was prior to the injury, but Baltimore is a team that can rely on the running game with Henry and Lamar Jackson. It also has tight end Isaiah Likely, who leads the Ravens with 167 receiving yards this season.

Andrews’ track record suggests the numbers will eventually come, and Harbaugh believes that to be the case. He may also have more openings as the season progresses and opposing defenses put more people in the box to stop the run.

For now, though, he is helping the team with his blocking.