After winning the Super Bowl and the MVP award for the game, Joe Flacco is expecting to become one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL. Whiel making things a bit easier for the Baltimore Ravens is an option so they remain below the salary cap, he isn’t planning on giving his only NFL team during his five year career a ‘hometown discount.’
Flacco is coming off his fifth NFL season and one of the most dominant postseasons in history, throwing 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions, including three consecutive games, none of them at home, with three TD passes and an overall playoff passer rating of 117.2. While Flacco knows he isn’t as talented as Brady, Brees and Rodgers, he is the one who one the title, setting a new record for postseason wins by a quarterback on the road, leading the Ravens into the playoffs for the fifth straight season.
So while his individual numbers (3817  yards, 22 touchdowns) aren’t exactly out of this world, it’s hard to think of anyone doing a better job than Flacco running the current Ravens offense, which means just how valuable he is to the Ravens, who don’t have much of a choice but to pay the man, of use the franchise tag on him due to their many needs and expiring contracts. Flacco has Joe Linta, doing the reasoning as to why he should be the highest paid QB in the NFL, or anything close to that.
I would say to you, of the other 52 players on the roster, how many of the other 52 took less money?  Do you work with the Ravens in terms of structure to help them out? Absolutely. But like I said, we all took risks. And I don’t think anybody was gonna feel sorry for Joe if he turned down a contract in July and didn’t have a great year and now was faced with less than what we’re talking about.
Look, there’s risk on both sides, and somebody could be saying to the Ravens,’Hey, donât you think it’s worth sacrificing some areas of your team to keep your franchise quarterback?’ There’s arguments on both sides, believe me. The goal is to be creative with the contract to get what you want and structure so that it helps the Ravens and doesn’t put them in a bad place cap-wise.
Any chance Flacco isn’t a Baltimore Ravens player next season? Hard to believe. But there’s always a chance. If the Ravens try and bluff Flacco with a non-exclusive tag of $14.6 million, saying they’ll match any offer from a different team, anyone with a huge 2013 cap space and a willingness to give up two first-round draft picks might actually get Flacco.
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