Bateman avoided the Ravens' Week 1 injury report and reiterated Wednesday that he's fully recovered from last year's Lisfranc foot surgery and ready to go for Sunday's season opener versus the Texans, Clifton Brown of the Ravens' official site reports.
Bateman has been snakebitten on the injury front through his first two NFL seasons, missing the first five games of his rookie campaign while recovering from groin surgery and then playing just six games in 2022 before sustaining the foot injury. The 23-year-old has at least looked like a foundational piece for the Baltimore passing attack when healthy, compiling a 61-800-3 receiving line on 96 targets through his first 18 career games. He'll face more competition for targets at receiver in 2023 with the Ravens adding veterans Odell Beckham and Nelson Agholor and first-round draft pick Zay Flowers to the position group, but Bateman still boasts the sort of speed and athleticism to emerge as the No. 1 option among the quartet.