Joe Flacco, unhappy with the extension offers he was getting from the Baltimore Ravens prior to the 2012 season, decided to play out the string of his final contract year and see what would happen after the 2012-13 campaign. As everyone likes to say, he ‘bet on himself’ that year in an effort to prove what his true value was to the team.
After going 4-0 in those playoffs, winning the Super Bowl, and doing it with a postseason TD/INT ratio of 11:0, Flacco earned all the leverage in the world in his next deal which ended up being a 6-year, $120.6M monstrosity that at the time was the biggest contract in NFL history. This was also the first time the word “Elite” was attached to the former Delaware Blue Hen.
It should have also been the last.
Since the 2013 season began, Joe Flacco has led the Ravens to a 24-25 record, completed a (to be kind) modest 61% of his passes and has a backup quarterback-like TD/INT ratio of 65:52. However, that did not stop the Ravens from extending his contract (due to the cap strains caused by the latter years in the 2013 deal) by another three seasons this past March which theoretically keeps him in the pilot’s seat through 2021.
This year, he has a cringeworthy Yards Per Attempt average of 5.9, a 5:6 TD/INT ratio and a 3-4 record. All at a cap charge of $22.55M. The Ravens are not getting today what they paid handsomely for in 2013.
Why is Joe Flacco’s professional career path noteworthy now? Because an eerily similar scenario is playing out just 33 miles away in Landover, MD.
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