Flacco’s Deal Done; QB Signs Five-Year Contract
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The deal for Ravens QB Joe Flacco appears to be done, as sources are reporting that the first-round pick has inked a deal with Baltimore that will pay him nearly $30 million over five years. Flacco has maintained from the start that he wanted a deal done so that he could report to camp on time, and he got his wish.
Flacco’s deal includes Brady Quinn-style escalators according to ProFootballTalk.com. Those escalators will depend on how much playing time Flacco sees in the 2008 season. Now that he’s in the fold from day one of camp, it will be interesting to see if the rookie has enough to overtake Kyle Boller and Troy Smith for the starting QB job.
The 18th overall pick in April’s draft is also due to make $8.75 million is guaranteed money according to sources.
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July 19th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
It is puzzling to me why Ravens’GM Ozzie Newsome has had so much trouble drafting and/or trading for a QB when his record on drafting and trading for players at any other position has been exemplary.
For example, in the 2003 draft, Ozzie traded with New England to draft QB Kyle Boller with the 19th pick in the first-round. Then former HC Brian Billick threw Boller into the fire as the starting QB at Pittsburgh in Game 1 that year when he had not earned the honor and the results were disastrous. Next in 2005 Ozzie used the Ravens sixth-round draft choice to select QB Derek Anderson who subsequently was acquired by the Cleveland Browns off the Ravens’practice squad that year without compensation. Anderson proceeded to give a good-enough performance at QB in 2007 for the Browns to keep their first-round draft choice in 2007 QB Brady Quinn on the bench the entire year. Meanwhile Ozzie in 2006 had traded for QB Steve McNair who often played hurt during his whole career. McNair gave the Ravens one good year at QB before retiring in 2008 after self-destructing during the 2007 season. Now Ozzie has traded up again into the first-round of the draft in 2008 with the Houston Texans to select QB Joe Flacco with the 18th pick as the latest QB experiment.
To recap, the first-round draft failure in 2003 at QB for the Ravens begat the sixth-round pick in 2005, that was subsequently plucked off the practice squad to rave reviews, which begat the 2006 trade for the washed-up veteran who had one good year left that begat the latest first-round draft pick in 2008. When and with whom will the merry-go-round at QB for the Baltimore Ravens stop?