Flacco: Highest paid QB in NFL history

[BroncoInferno]

Originally Posted by Dedhed

I'd give up a few regular season wins for clutch in the playoffs and a Title every single year.

Yeah, but until this season, Flacco had "won" in the playoffs in the same manner that Sanchez had....by riding the coattails of his teammates. He wasn't clutch in the playoffs until this season. That's not "sour grapes," it's simply a fact. Does one (admittedly) epic playoff run following a mediocre (borderline bad, really) regular season mean you deserve to be the highest paid player in NFL history? I don't think it does. You look at the total body of work, and it's not impressive. If Moore doesn't spazz out and properly defend the pass to Jones, the Ravens probably give Flacco the non-exlusive tag (~$14 million) and buy themselves a year before they have to make a long-term decision on him. You can't deny that luck played a factor here. If Flacco is able to continue his 2013 postseason play into next season and beyond, then it will prove worth it. But it's reasonable to question whether or not he can play that way consistently over the course of an entire season. He never has before.

[Dedhed]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Nobody will disagree with what Flacco did in the playoffs. But anyone who followed Baltimore football more closely knows that there was a lot of discussion during the regular season about what the long term solution was going to be at QB. There was a lot of doubt about Flacco and a lot of people were done with him. Do you recall how awful he was against the Broncos in the regular season game? He played extremely well in the postseason, but his defense (really stepped it up in the playoffs), WRs (they went up and got a lot of balls, particularly Boldin), and OL (remember the Broncos, who led the league in sacks, couldn't touch him) gave him a lot of solid support. Again, let's see what he does this coming year before we crown him.

Fickle fans and past tense quibbling. Idiot fans are idiots, that's why the aren't coaches and GM's. Fan opinion and sports radio are driven by hyperbole. The defense in Baltimore was not the reason they have the Title in their hands. Flacco outplayed every QB he faced in the playoffs.

You can wait to crown him all you want, but it ,makes no difference; he's already been crowned. The opinion of fans who's teams Flacco tore apart on his way to a title is irrelevant.

[Arkie]

Imagine how much money Flacco would make if he was a top 10 QB in any category besides sacks.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Dedhed

Fickle fans and past tense quibbling. Idiot fans are idiots, that's why the aren't coaches and GM's. Fan opinion and sports radio are driven by hyperbole. The defense in Baltimore was not the reason they have the Title in their hands. Flacco outplayed every QB he faced in the playoffs.

You can wait to crown him all you want, but it ,makes no difference; he's already been crowned. The opinion of fans who's teams Flacco tore apart on his way to a title is irrelevant.

Flacco had a nice run for sure, but the defense did step up too. And, as everyone has already pointed out, Rahim Moore certainly deserves a nice little slice of the Flacco pie as well.

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by Dedhed

Fan opinion and sports radio are driven by hyperbole.

Flacco's general mediocrity isn't remotely "hyperbole". Take a look at his stats the last few years. And there are hundreds of article on this topic. Here's a very good, short one you can educate yourself with, for example:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...-their-defense

[Bigdawg26]

I will say one thing about this contract is that it gets rid of one super bowl contender we have to worry about. The ravens paid a mediocre quarterback the highest QB contract which allowed them not to sign key free agents along with down the road his high cap number will affect them signing other free agents. For this, I would like to thank Rahim Moore for thinking long-term!

[Drunken.Broncoholic]

I don't think many are questioning Flaccos late season run. I give some credit in Baltimore letting go of Cam. Flacco performed great this postseason. In the previous years that defense was the reason they were in postseasons, while flacco and the offense was the reason they couldn't get the ring. What's up for debate is that is one season enough to warrant most money ever? People say athletes perform the best in contract years. Kinda tells you what's most important for them

[WolfpackGuy]

He's alright, but not worth 120 large.

[Cito Pelon]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Flacco's general mediocrity isn't remotely "hyperbole". Take a look at his stats the last few years. And there are hundreds of article on this topic. Here's a very good, short one you can educate yourself with, for example:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...-their-defense

The only defense I have for this deal is Flacco may have been average across all passing categories, but he's consistent and durable. No big highs or lows, just consistently average, and has started every single game since day one.

The big deal this postseason is Anquan Boldin finally made the catches they expected when they traded for him. Boldin pulled in the passes finally, and that made a lot of the wins this postseason.

[rbackfactory80]

Flacco seems to up his game in the playoffs, much like Eli. Anyone who plays better in the playoffs is a QB you want on your team.

Oh, and the jealousy in this thread is unbelievable. Guy got it done and deserves props. So what he played like **** in the regular season. Just say to yourself--Indy->Denver->N.E.->S.F.

Helluva run!

[Drunken.Broncoholic]

Originally Posted by rbackfactory80

Flacco seems to up his game in the playoffs, much like Eli. Anyone who plays better in the playoffs is a QB you want on your team.

Oh, and the jealousy in this thread is unbelievable. Guy got it done and deserves props. So what he played like **** in the regular season. Just say to yourself--Indy->Denver->N.E.->S.F.

Helluva run!

Jealousy? I don't see any post in here that screams jealousy. But yours seem to be saturated in hatred/jealousy of a QB who kicked your hero out of town.

I checked out his playoff stats for his career and he's got some stinkers in there as well. Ain't all pristine. Against the steelers in 2010 he managed 125 yards. Houston in 2011 he was only 14-27 176 yards. 2009 against Indy his QB rating was only 48! In 2008, granted a rookie he was putting up QB ratings of 59 and 18.2.

GTFO saying he's been incredible in playoffs. That defense won alot of his games.

[DBroncos4life]

Originally Posted by Drunken.Broncoholic

Jealousy? I don't see any post in here that screams jealousy. But yours seem to be saturated in hatred/jealousy of a QB who kicked your hero out of town.

This.

[COWheatGrower]

Originally Posted by WolfpackGuy

He's alright, but not worth 120 large.

If Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder and Joey Votto are making $200 million-plus in baseball, a $120 million contract for a Super Bowl-winning quarterback seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Is there a position in sports that means more to team success than what a quarterback does? One could argue a dominant player in the NBA, but other than that, nothing comes close.

[COWheatGrower]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Flacco has a great arm, always has. And you have to give the guy credit for how well he's played in the postseason. The problem is he's been very inconsistent, and sometimes just not very good, in the regular season. He played poorly quite a few times this past season. The Ravens barely made the playoffs. If you don't make the playoffs you can't win in them. We'll see if his performance this past postseason carries over into next season. Chances are he reverts back to something closer to the way he's played the last couple of regular seasons. And we'll find out if that's good enough.

He has a 54-26 career regular season QB record. He has never done worse than 9-7. That seems pretty consistent to me.

His numbers won't knock one's socks off, but he has never thrown more than 12 interceptions in a season and he has 20+ plus touchdowns in four straight years.

[COWheatGrower]

Originally Posted by BroncoBeavis

Yeah when you think about it, great regular season teams don't tend to play tons of road playoff games.

How many quarterbacks in NFL history have won a playoff game in each of their first five seasons?

The Ravens are the only NFL franchise that have made the playoffs in each of the last five seasons. They have two 12-win and one 11-win within that time span. They're not exactly chopped liver in the regular season.

[Bacchus]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Flacco's general mediocrity isn't remotely "hyperbole". Take a look at his stats the last few years. And there are hundreds of article on this topic. Here's a very good, short one you can educate yourself with, for example:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...-their-defense

The Ravens overpaid, but they did get a Superbowl ring which are very hard to get. They had no option, they had no back-up plan. They do not have a QB behind him, there are not any FA QBs better than him and the draft sucks. Their plan this whole year was to resign him. They were hoping his poor play would reduce their cost but then he wound up winning him a SB. So I imagine no one in Baltimore is too upset about the contract. They got their ring now all they can do is hope that he keeps it up.

[Jekyll15Hyde]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Nobody will disagree with what Flacco did in the playoffs. But anyone who followed Baltimore football more closely knows that there was a lot of discussion during the regular season about what the long term solution was going to be at QB. There was a lot of doubt about Flacco and a lot of people were done with him. Do you recall how awful he was against the Broncos in the regular season game? He played extremely well in the postseason, but his defense (really stepped it up in the playoffs), WRs (they went up and got a lot of balls, particularly Boldin), and OL (remember the Broncos, who led the league in sacks, couldn't touch him) gave him a lot of solid support. Again, let's see what he does this coming year before we crown him.

I'm calling it now, esp without Ray-ray

[rbackfactory80]

Originally Posted by DBroncos4life

This.

[eddie mac]

Originally Posted by Beantown Bronco

They're going to re-negotiate a 6 year deal after 2 years? That would have to be a record.

Renegotiate/restructure same thing, it will happen and does with nearly every large unguaranteed deal in this league.

After 2 years guarantees GONE

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by COWheatGrower

He has a 54-26 career regular season QB record. He has never done worse than 9-7. That seems pretty consistent to me.

His numbers won't knock one's socks off, but he has never thrown more than 12 interceptions in a season and he has 20+ plus touchdowns in four straight years.

He's a good QB. Above average. I've provided plenty of info in previous posts that support this. I'm not knocking the guy. He had a great postseason and his timing couldn't have been better from a financial perspective. But my hunch is that next season he'll look more like the better than average QB he's always been than the world beater some people think he is after this past run. Think Eli Manning.

Here's another really good read you should all check out. Read the whole thing. Chase Stuart does good work.

http://www.footballperspective.com/is-joe-flacco-elite/

[TonyR]

From the article I linked above, further supporting the argument I've been making:

As you can see, with the exception of his great interception rate — which justifies its own post during this pre-Super Bowl period — Flacco’s career performance has been rather average. His touchdown rate, like those of many quarterbacks, has bounced up and down throughout his career. His sack rate was below average during his first three years, improved significantly in 2011, and landed right at the league average in 2012.

In the three main statistics — Y/A, NY/A, and ANY/A — Flacco has consistently finished in a tight window around the league average. His ANY/A has been slightly better than his NY/A thanks to that lofty interception rate, but suffice it to say Joe Flacco is, and has been for years, a league average quarterback.

If we look at ESPN’s Total QBR, Flacco ranked 27th as a rookie in 2008, 15th in 2009, and 12th in 2010, signaling a young quarterback improving and on the rise. In 2011, he ranked 14th, perhaps signaling a leveling off, and then this past season, he finished 25th. The positive spin would be that he’s a league-average quarterback, and the negative one (at least prior to this post-season) would have been that he was regressing.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by elibroncofan

But that's two few drives the offense had to score points...if anything it could be argued that holliday's points hurt the offense because it never allowed them to get into consistent rhythm

[Dedhed]

Originally Posted by Drunken.Broncoholic

I don't think many are questioning Flaccos late season run. I give some credit in Baltimore letting go of Cam. Flacco performed great this postseason. In the previous years that defense was the reason they were in postseasons, while flacco and the offense was the reason they couldn't get the ring. What's up for debate is that is one season enough to warrant most money ever? People say athletes perform the best in contract years. Kinda tells you what's most important for them

My point is that the whole "MOST MONEY EVER!" thing is not an argument at all. He'll be the highest paid player until the next top level QB signs. It's called inflation; it's a meaningless title.

[Dedhed]

Originally Posted by Bacchus

The Ravens overpaid, but they did get a Superbowl ring which are very hard to get.

And they got a Super Bowl Ring for a bargain price. Players are compensated retroactively all the time. Flacco's never had a top-tier contract, he deserves one, and he got one.

[Drunken.Broncoholic]

Originally Posted by Dedhed

My point is that the whole "MOST MONEY EVER!" thing is not an argument at all. He'll be the highest paid player until the next top level QB signs. It's called inflation; it's a meaningless title.

Ya there's a few QBs coming up that will use Flaccos contract as a base. Pretty much that way in baseball too. Rogers and Matt Ryan will be asking for more than flacco. You're right "highest paid" only last for so long.