FLACCO'S CONTRACT: IS HE REALLY WORTH THE MONEY?

FLACCO'S CONTRACT: JUSTIFYING THE MONEY
    
     Joe Flacco signed a contract worth a reported $120.6 million today with $52 million in guaranteed money.  I listened to many fans on the radio last week that disagreed with the idea that Joe should be the highest player in the entire NFL as many of them do not feel he's the best quarterback in the league.  I,  however, believe he deserves exactly what he got, and I'm happy to explain why.
     Joe Flacco is 28 years old and is just entering what many would consider the prime of his career as a quarterback.  Joe is still in his late 20s and his body has not yet begun to break down the way that the body of a quarterback in his mid to late 30s tends to do (Peyton Manning and Brett Favre are prime examples).  So Joe is young enough that his body is in great shape, but he has 5 years of experience at a position where experience is paramount to the develoment and understanding of the complexities of NFL offenses and defenses. 
     More important than the number of years Joe has been in the league is the number of games he has played during that time period and the number of post-season games he has won.  Joe Flacco is the only NFL quarterback to go to the playoffs in each of the last 5 seasons, and his post-season resume during that time period has been nothing short of spectacular.  Flacco's 9-4 record with 3 AFC Championship appearances and a Super Bowl win make him simply the hottest playoff quarterback in the NFL during the last 5 years.
     Despite his impressive record from a wins and losses standpoint, many fans tend to look down upon Flacco because of his less than elite regular season statistics.  Joe Flacco has never had a single regular season with 4000+ passing yards or more than 25 passing touchdowns.  Flacco has been criticized as inconsistent and has sometimes had games where he looked totally lost. I, however, would urge fans to consider for a moment the career of Drew Brees. 
     Drew Brees is generally regarded as an elite quarterback.  Brees typically carries his team on his shoulders and passes for 4500+ yards just about every year...but it wasn't always that way.  Drew Brees had the--uhh--pleasure (sarcasm intended) of having Cam Cameron as his offensive coordinator for the first 5 seasons of his career in the NFL.  Joe Flacco also had Cam Cameron as his offensive coordinator for just about the first 5 of his NFL career, and it would shock many people to learn that Flacco's statistics have been far better than those of Brees during their respective times working with Cameron.
     During Drew Brees' first five season in the NFL, the now-elite quarterback never once threw for at least 3600 passing yards.  Brees, in fact, averaged just over 3,400 passing yards per season during his compete seasons in his first 5 years (it should be noted that Brees' rookie season and 3rd season were both incomplete and he played a combined 12 games during those two years).   The most passing yards Brees had in a single season with Cam Cameron's play calling was a mere 3,576 yards in his 5th season.  The very next season, however, Brees escaped the confines of Cam Cameron's pathetically simplistic passing schemes and began his time with the New Orleans Saints.  That season Brees threw for a whopping 4,418 yards!  Brees also had less interceptions and more touchdowns than in his last season with the Chargers. 
     Joe Flacco, by contrast, had more than 3,600 passing yards in all but one of his first five seasons, and the only season in which he had less than 3,600 passing yards was his rookie season wherein the Ravens employed a "3-headed monster" running back trio as the centerpiece of their offense.  Fortunately for Joe, Cam Cameron was fired by the Ravens just in time for the young quarterback to get used to a new and better offensive coordinator and make a historic playoff run capped off with a Super Bowl victory one month ago.
     In years past, people could point to the Ravens defense as a big reason for the Ravens success even when Joe Flacco failed to perform at a high level.  That was not the case in the 2012-2013 season as the Ravens defense landed in the bottom half of the league during the regular season due to a rash of injuries to the starting lineup. 
     Joe had his ups and downs during the regular season, but he was good enough to lead the Ravens offense to its highest scoring regular season since the team's inception.  Joe showed a totally different level of performance and consistency under the guidance and play-calling of Jim Caldwell.  He threw for 11 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in the post-season, and outplayed both of the quarterbacks that are considered by many to be the best of their generation...and he did so on the road.  Joe is much younger than Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady, and he's a far better quarterback in high pressure come-from-behind wins than Aaron Rodgers.  Flacco is still cool under pressure and plays with unflinching resolve even in hostile road playoff games.  He has never missed a regular season game due to injury despite having taken his share of big hits due to years of inconsistent protection from his offensive line.  Joe showed what he could do once free of the shackles of Cam Cameron's offensive system, and fans should expect the trend to continue into the next regular season.  Yes, there may be quarterbacks that will perform better than Joe Flacco in the 2013 regular season, but there is no other quarterback in the league right now with the combination of experience, physical abilities, post-season prowess, durability, and comparative youth of Joe Flacco, and that's exactly why he deserves to be the highest paid player in the NFL today. 

     I get that some people may still not be sold on Joe regardless of everything I've discussed here, but I'm confident that he'll finally put up elite regular season statistics next season in Jim Caldwell's offense.  Many people thought they had seen the best of Joe Flacco as the regular season was coming to a close in 2012, but now I think we can all agree that the best is likely yet to come.  Stay tuned tomorrow for my first 2013 NFL Draft wishlist.  We'll look at the Ravens' positions of need that will hopefully be addressed in the draft and also discuss free agent priorities and possible roster cuts.  It's a new era in Baltimore, Ravens fans!

AS ALWAYS
GO RAVENS!!!