Week 1 in the NFL can lie. Week 2 can lie, too. Just ask the Ravens, who started last year 0-2, heard all about their long playoff odds, then won 12 of their next 15 games to claim another AFC North crown.

“It’s a week-to-week league,” Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr said last week, “so what happened last week really doesn’t matter [for] what’s going to happen this week.”

Teams do leave clues, though. And as the Ravens prepare for their “Monday Night Football” clash against the Detroit Lions, it’s worth examining what might be a signal and what might just be noise. Here’s a look at four early-season narratives in Baltimore and whether they hold up under scrutiny.

Mark Andrews is washed: Overreaction

With tight end Isaiah Likely sidelined to start the season and two defenses with questionable middle-of-the-field coverage ability on the schedule, Andrews seemed like a good bet to have a busy September. He was coming off a productive camp. He was seemingly healthy, though he did miss time in late August with an undisclosed injury. And he was motivated, entering the final year of his contract and looking to put last season’s disastrous end behind him.

But as the Ravens’ offense has soared, Andrews has remained largely grounded. He has just two catches on four targets for 7 yards, and he’s averaging a minuscule 0.2 yards per route run, according to Pro Football Focus. Andrews’ most notable play, besides a couple of impressive open-field blocks in Week 1, came in Sunday’s blowout win against Cleveland, when he had a would-be touchdown catch in the back of the end zone punched out of his grasp by Browns safety Grant Delpit.

Tight end Charlie Kolar, meanwhile, has yet to be targeted on his 26 snaps as a receiver. Overall, just 10.6% of quarterback Lamar Jackson’s targets this season have gone to a tight end; last year, 31.5% went to a tight end or fullback Patrick Ricard.

“It’s going to happen,” coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “Those guys are going to catch a lot of passes. I expect those guys to be a big part of what we’re doing. If we start going four or five weeks, and you don’t see the tight ends getting targets, I’ll probably be asking ‘Monk’ [offensive coordinator Todd Monken] and Lamar and the guys, ‘What do you think?’ But the ball goes where it goes based on the reads. That’s where the ball goes, based on Lamar’s reads, and that’s what quarterbacks do. So those guys know that, and they’re fighting to run good routes and just trying to make the plays that come to them.”

Time will tell. Andrews doesn’t look slow off the snap. He’s physical through the route stem. He still makes himself available to Jackson underneath. But with Andrews needed more along the line of scrimmage in place of injured fullback Patrick Ricard, inconsistent pass protection from the Ravens’ offensive line, and the team’s wide receivers winning regularly outside, Andrews hasn’t gotten many primo opportunities. According to Sports Info Solutions, he’s yet to run a deep cross this season, a staple of his Ravens tenure that he ran 40 times last year.

Daniel Faalele is the line’s weak link: Overreaction

Faalele’s wins up front don’t make for great highlight reel fodder. At a listed 6-foot-8 and 370 pounds, with 35-inch arms, he can be difficult to uproot and difficult to get around. He does not move gracefully, but he packs enough of a punch to clear lanes at the second level.

Through two weeks at right guard, Faalele is at once living up to expectations and down to expectations. On his worst plays, he still looks out of place on an NFL field. But on the rest of his snaps, he generally keeps his head above water.

Of the 60 guards who’ve played at least 100 offensive snaps this season, Faalele ranks No. 30 overall on PFF, far more accomplished as a pass blocker (No. 1) than a run blocker (No. 47). He’s allowed one sack on two quarterback pressures, both coming in Week 1, and has built on his strong showing protecting Jackson late last season.

The Ravens’ other starting guard, meanwhile, is still looking for consistency wherever he can find it. Left guard Andrew Vorhees ranks No. 59 overall on PFF through two weeks, with bottom-five marks in pass blocking (three pressures allowed) and run blocking. According to SIS, he has by far the highest blown-block rate among guards with at least 100 snaps this season (8%), eight times higher than Faalele’s (1%).

Center Tyler Linderbaum’s shaky start to the season hasn’t helped Vorhees inside. Browns defensive end Myles Garrett’s overwhelming performance in Week 2 against tackle Ronnie Stanley shook up the left side of the Ravens’ line, too. But the offense needs more from Vorhees, who outplayed Faalele in their two preseason games by a wide margin.

“Monday Night Football” would be a good place to bounce back. Detroit’s front is led by star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, but it lacks a difference maker inside.

Roquan Smith is all the way back: Wait and see

Smith earned All-Pro honors last year for the third straight season, but his elite form wasn’t there early in 2024. Over the season’s first 10 weeks, he graded out as PFF’s No. 42 off-ball linebacker among 59 qualifying players. Communication issues plagued the defense, and Smith seemed to struggle not only with an early-season injury, which limited his ability in coverage, but also with his partnership with starter Trenton Simpson.

Over the final eight weeks of the 2024 regular season, however, with the injury seemingly behind Smith and Simpson’s defensive role largely diminished, Smith bounced back. He shot up to No. 14 in PFF’s rankings during that stretch, leading a defense that was among the NFL’s best over the season’s second half.

This season, through two games, there has been far more good than bad from the league’s second-highest-paid inside linebacker. In the Ravens’ win Sunday, Smith became the first NFL defender since at least 2008 to record at least 15 tackles, three tackles for loss and one defensive touchdown in a single game. His average tackle depth as a run defender was just 0.7 yards off the line of scrimmage, according to SIS, the fourth lowest of his Ravens career.

But there have also been hints that Smith, 28, is aging out of his physical prime. Buffalo Bills running back James Cook stiff-armed him out of the way on a 51-yard catch-and-run in Week 1. And on Sunday, Smith barely tripped up Browns running back Quinshon Judkins as the rookie looped around him on a catch out of the backfield.

“All the noise, honestly, I don’t really hear it, nor do I care about others’ opinions,” Smith said Sunday. “It’s more about the guys who I’m going to war with. That’s who I care about, [their] opinions, how they actually feel and how we’re going to go out and show exactly who we are. We’re going to do that week in and week out. Last week is last week. It’s in the past for a reason. Learned from the mistakes, did a lot of great things, but it’s great to have your weaknesses revealed Week 1 as opposed to later in the season.”

Week 3 could be Smith’s most interesting test of the early season. The Lions’ explosive offense stresses second-level defenders with a creative ground game, the receiving ability of running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, and the connection between quarterback Jared Goff and threats like slot receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Sam LaPorta.

Detroit will not only go after Smith but also rookie inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan, who started Sunday in place of Trenton Simpson and had a solid, if unremarkable, game. The fourth-round pick had five tackles, flowed to the ball well as a run defender, and had some ups and downs with his assignments in coverage.

Zay Flowers has leveled up: Not an overreaction

The Ravens’ Pro Bowl wide receiver had a quiet summer. Rashod Bateman was more consistent in training camp, and Flowers’ production in some stretches seemed to depend on how often he was funneled designed touches.

But Flowers’ training camp performance didn’t correlate to his regular-season performance last year, and it’s mattered even less this season. Entering Week 3, he’s fifth in the NFL in receiving yards (218), seventh in catches (14) and eighth in targets (20). He’s also averaging a ridiculous 4.3 yards per route run, behind only Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua among regular contributors.

Even more impressive is Flowers’ level of competition. In Week 1, he caught both of his targets for 43 yards and a touchdown when matched up in coverage against Bills cornerback Christian Benford, one of the NFL’s most underrated defensive backs, according to PFF. On Sunday, he caught all five of his targets for 47 yards against Cleveland Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II, who a week earlier didn’t allow a completion to Cincinnati Bengals star wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

Flowers has been an especially hard cover with a running start. He leads the NFL in receiving yards on plays when he’s been motioned before the snap (68), according to SIS, putting him well ahead of his 2024 pace, when he finished in the top 10 in yardage (285).

And there’s still another level Flowers can reach. If Jackson can find him more regularly on deep shots, Flowers could become one of the NFL’s most dangerous wide receivers. Jackson is just 1-for-4 on passes targeting Flowers at least 20 yards downfield this season, only one of which was deemed to be catchable, according to SIS. Flowers got decent separation on three vertical routes that led to targets Sunday, but Jackson overshot him on all three.