Despite receiving a two-year extension this offseason, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman knows this season is crucial for his long-term future with the team.

The former first-round pick hasn’t quite lived up to his draft pedigree, catching 93 receptions for 1,167 yards and four touchdowns in his first three seasons. He’s dealt with challenges both on and off the field, but either way, his production hasn’t been what the Ravens would’ve hoped for.

This season, he’s firmly the Ravens’ No. 2 receiver with his best chance yet to make an impact, and that he did in Sunday’s win over the Dallas Cowboys. In the final minute of the second quarter second quarter, Bateman found himself wide open in the end zone for an easy 13-yard touchdown, his first of the season.

Bateman may have had just three receptions for 28 yards, but his touchdown alone was enough to cement his impact. So much so that he earned a big shoutout from head coach John Harbaugh in Monday’s press conference.

“I was really happy for Rashod,” Harbaugh told reporters. “I feel like he’s open a lot, because he runs such good routes, and Lamar [Jackson] finds him, and it’s starting to just really grow.

“We’ve got the two young wide receivers out there, and I talk to those guys all the time about, ‘They’re the future and the present,’ and we’ve got the tight ends, and we’ve got the veteran, ‘Nelly’ [Nelson Agholor], doing his thing in there, and you see Tylan [Wallace] will go out there, and he makes his plays, and sometimes he does the dirty work, and he does it so well. [And] Justice Hill … All these guys are just critical elements of what we’re trying to do. But Bate … Bate’s upside is phenomenal.”

The talent is absolutely there with Bateman, it’s just a matter of putting it all together. If he can continue to get wide open like he did on Sunday, then he could be in for the best season of his young career.