Isaiah Likely is inching closer to returning. He was a full participant at practice today. But I’m not confident he’ll be putting up notable numbers anytime soon.
First, he needs to get on the field. The increased practice reps are a positive sign (with his first full practice since breaking his foot early in camp). He's questionable on the injury report. I expect he’ll return for one of their next two games. (If we’re putting together an office pool, put me down for Week 5.)
But I’m not sure that Likely will be more than a nominal second tight end for our purposes. Mark Andrews on Monday night reminded everyone that he’s still Mark Andrews, with 6 catches for 90 yards and a couple of touchdowns. He’s 29. He’s not going away anytime soon.
With Likely, there’s been the hope that at some point he’ll become Baltimore’s main tight end. In the offseason, there was some wondering (perhaps even by the Ravens themselves) whether Andrews would be traded or released, moving Likely up into that top spot.
That narrative kind of started in part because of that season opener at Arrowhead last year, with Likely catching 9 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, with Lamar Jackson firing passes to him in the end zone at the end of the game.
But Andrews didn’t leave. He’s still starting. And that leaves Likely in a secondary role, competing for action with a swarm of wide receivers. The team is stronger at that position than it has been in the past – Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman, DeAndre Hopkins, Devontez Walker, Tylan Wallace. Hopkins doesn’t play much, but is still a red zone weapon.
Walker has got his foot in the door, with 2 TDs against Cleveland and a 34-yard catch against Detroit. And Wallace, while not much of a factor so far, has been on the field for more plyas than Hopkins or Walker the last two games.
I think Likely falls into that Bateman-Hopkins-Walker-Wallace group – he’ll pop up now and then with a touchdown (maybe catches 4-5 TDs the rest of the way) but not a guy you can ever put in a lineup with any confidence of something good happening.
I don’t think his role has changed much from last year, and the 2024 version of Likely wasn’t quite good enough for our purposes. After the KC opener, he played in 17 more games (including the playoffs). In those 17 games – a full season of work, essentially – he caught 40 passes for 492 yards and 6 TDs.
| ISAIAH LIKELY, 2024 GAME LOGS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk | Opp | Result | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 1 | at K.C. | L, 20-27 | 12 | 9 | 111 | 12.3 | 1 |
| 2 | L.V. | L, 23-26 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 13.0 | 0 |
| 3 | at Dall. | W, 28-25 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 |
| 4 | Buff. | W, 35-10 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 26.0 | 0 |
| 5 | at Cin. | W, 41-38 (OT) | 3 | 3 | 13 | 4.3 | 2 |
| 6 | Was. | W, 30-23 | 4 | 2 | 27 | 13.5 | 0 |
| 7 | at T.B. | W, 41-31 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 8.5 | 0 |
| 8 | at Cle. | L, 24-29 | 4 | 4 | 47 | 11.8 | 0 |
| 9 | Den. | W, 41-10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 11 | at Pitt. | L, 16-18 | 5 | 4 | 75 | 18.8 | 0 |
| 12 | at LAC | W, 30-23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 13 | Phil. | L, 19-24 | 8 | 5 | 38 | 7.6 | 1 |
| 15 | at NYG | W, 35-14 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 8.5 | 0 |
| 16 | Pitt. | W, 34-17 | 3 | 3 | 29 | 9.7 | 1 |
| 17 | at Hou. | W, 31-2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9.0 | 1 |
| 18 | Cle. | W, 35-10 | 5 | 3 | 38 | 12.7 | 0 |
| 19 | Pitt. | W, 28-14 | 4 | 3 | 53 | 17.7 | 0 |
| 20 | at Buff. | L, 25-27 | 5 | 4 | 73 | 18.3 | 1 |
—Ian Allan