The next time Gus Edwards crosses the goal line, he might need to get creative.
The running back jumped into the crowd to celebrate one of his 10 touchdowns this season, but he sees the receivers room raising the bar for end zone celebrations. Edwards doesn’t normally look to draw attention to himself unless he’s scored a TD he’s truly proud of, but Odell Beckham Jr.’s Michael Jackson tribute made him see the appeal.
“Gotta give it to OBJ,” Edwards said. “He did the Michael Jackson last week — that was impressive.”
As the Ravens’ receivers have become touchdown threats in recent weeks, they’ve spilled some of that surging confidence into end zone revelry.
Some of the Ravens’ top scorers typically don’t get too flashy. Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews have mostly gone for spikes this season (though Jackson at one time was known for the Kodak Bop). Flexing muscles, bumping helmets and raising arms aloft in the touchdown signal about cover it for most of the veterans.
“There’s also the issue where sometimes you get in there,” Edwards quipped, “and you just completely forget.”
The new blood, however, is driving the showmanship.
With four touchdowns this season, rookie Zay Flowers has been the most flamboyant. Against the Chargers, he went for a bouquet toss, which none of his teammates knew was his plan before the football (meant to represent the bouquet) landed in John Simpson’s hands. But he rebounded by co-opting Beckham for a Ronaldo-style penalty kick celebration on his second score.
He helped plot Isaiah Likely’s bit against the Rams, when Likely mimicked Jackson’s presnap wristband squint and gave it to Flowers for a mock handoff, an idea they had talked about in the week leading up to the game if either scored.
“I guess you could say we’re more bonded, more connected,” Likely said. “Everybody loves everybody, and everybody, I feel like, talks to everybody, in and out of football. So really just having that creative moment and letting your creative mind fly.”
The bonded part is especially important. Jackson poo-pooed Flowers’ bouquet toss at the time but admitted the idea was a good one after Flowers explained it to him.
“The whole team wasn’t joining in on the celebration,” Jackson said. “It was like him and [Rashod Bateman] only, and everyone else was clueless. We were like, ‘What’s going on?’ So, that’s all right, but that was horrible. Next time, let us know; give us a heads-up.”
But the most respected celebration artist is clearly Beckham, who was famous for his “Whip” dance in New York (he once paid tribute to Ray Lewis’ Squirrel Dance when he played for the Giants). The ones he’s broken out in Baltimore include the Park Heights Strut, along with the Michael Jackson tribute against the Rams after his 46-yard score.
When he was a touchdown machine with the Giants, Beckham said, he used to plan his routines ahead of time because he was so confident of when and how he would score. These days, it’s a little more improvised, he admitted. But any NFL touchdown, he believes, is worth celebrating.
“So the idea of not celebrating, to me, is kind of galling, because I’ve been hurt and been on the side not playing,” he said. “You never know when it could be your last touchdown.”
The best part of the celebrations is the score itself. Last season, the Ravens got just seven touchdown receptions from wide receivers. This season’s group has already surpassed that with 10 (plus Flowers’ rush in L.A.), and six of them have come in the last four games, helping compensate for the injury to Andrews.
Beckham thinks it has built a sense of swagger for the unit. So, if the scoring continues, so will the celebrations.
“It’s not like it’s intimidating for other teams, but if you see people cutting up, you’re like, ‘Damn, they look like they’re having fun.’ That’s mental warfare on another team,” he said. “So, as long as we keep scoring, we’ll have more celebrations.”
Added Beckham, with a wink at his locker neighbor Flowers: “And less bouquet tosses.”
