[News] Ravens Sign Joe Flacco To Contract Extension

[Bruce_Almty]

Whoa, Joe's post-SB stats & his new 40mil guarantee money getting slammed on espn nfl live. Evidently Joe's not elite. hmmm

[fusuymada]

What I heard today about the Ravens cap is that if you take into consideration Joe's new deal, the increase in cap money, the franchise tag on Tucker, the deal to KO, and keeping Aiken at a 2.5 mil restricted contract, we are still on the wrong side of the cap number. So in order to do anything in free agency, all savings from here on out will be as a result of players we cut loose. Flacco's deal is only worth 6 mil against the cap this year and since we were already the second worst team against the cap this year, by the time you count what the Ravens want to do and have to do, we are poor again. When you take into consideration the guys the Ravens can cut and save money, there isn't a whole lot out there to save.

[FloridalovesRavens]

What I heard today about the Ravens cap is that if you take into consideration Joe's new deal, the increase in cap money, the franchise tag on Tucker, the deal to KO, and keeping Aiken at a 2.5 mil restricted contract, we are still on the wrong side of the cap number. So in order to do anything in free agency, all savings from here on out will be as a result of players we cut loose. Flacco's deal is only worth 6 mil against the cap this year and since we were already the second worst team against the cap this year, by the time you count what the Ravens want to do and have to do, we are poor again. When you take into consideration the guys the Ravens can cut and save money, there isn't a whole lot out there to save.

I'm quite sure the Ravens know more about this cap situation then we do so lighten up. Everything will work out.

[FloridalovesRavens]

14 hours ago, Bruce_Almty said:

Whoa, Joe's post-SB stats & his new 40mil guarantee money getting slammed on espn nfl live. Evidently Joe's not elite. hmmm

They have nothing better to do. I'm sure Joe could give a rat's tail what they think. Neither do I. Go Ravens.

[Matty G]

Does anyone know the details of this extension? Meaning does anyone know the yearly cap hits. I know this year is around 22 mil cap hit

[vinnystp]

22 minutes ago, fusuymada said:

What I heard today about the Ravens cap is that if you take into consideration Joe's new deal, the increase in cap money, the franchise tag on Tucker, the deal to KO, and keeping Aiken at a 2.5 mil restricted contract, we are still on the wrong side of the cap number. So in order to do anything in free agency, all savings from here on out will be as a result of players we cut loose. Flacco's deal is only worth 6 mil against the cap this year and since we were already the second worst team against the cap this year, by the time you count what the Ravens want to do and have to do, we are poor again. When you take into consideration the guys the Ravens can cut and save money, there isn't a whole lot out there to save.

Actually, the plan is to offer Tucker a multi-year deal, which could keep this years cap number down.  Same with Aiken, but who knows if they only offer him a 1 year RFA tender, or if they try to extend him now to get more bang for the buck.  If Aiken doesn't want an extension, and opts to be a UFA next year, then yes, it depends on the tender the Front office wants to extend to prevent teams from signing.  All we do know is that if Tucker doesn't agree to a deal before the cut-off date, and he plays under the franchise tag number, our cap situation is not where we want to be.  

We don't exactly know the details of KO's current offer, but I can assume that this years number will be relatively low, to fit within the cap window of what we expected to have available.  Pair this with his signing bonus, and spread that over the course of the entire contract, and we can expect a huge number, but still should be under the cap.

Yes, we can expect some cuts...as much as I love ALL of our guys, we can expect to see some guys not make it to the 2016 roster, who are cap casualties.

It is not time to start panicking....yet.

[The Greek]

need to stay healthy and get the running game back on track

[ravenwildman]

Glad Joe is our QB. One thing is for sure when he plays, he will never stop fighting for the win (like jump on a fumble in the 4th quarter, Cam?). LOL, seriously though, if given the choice, I can not name one single QB in the league I would want under center for the Ravens other than him. Raven for life Joe! GO RAVENS!

[ellicottraven]

So bottom line is he had 58.4M left on his contract for the next 3 yrs. Now, he has inked an extension worth 66.4M at about 22.1M per year for the final 3 yrs of his new 6 yr deal running through 2021. So the total value of his new contract must be apprx. 125MM over 6 yrs. With a flat cap hit across the entire period of about 22M a year I believe. He has 44M in guarantees added to the deal. So, Joe is here to stay long term as a Raven marshalling our offense elite or otherwise. Go to hell ESPN if you think we overpaid him. We may very well have overpaid him or even perhaps he isn't worth that kind of money. But, the bottom line is I would rather pay Flacco a couple of million more than I would pay Bradford for sure. As for Cousins getting paid 20M this year I'm not sure of that either because Cousins did have a better season last year than Flacco has ever had in the regular season but Flacco has won us a SB. Of course that must count for something right ESPN?

[rmcjacket23]

2 minutes ago, ellicottraven said:

So bottom line is he had 58.4M left on his contract for the next 3 yrs. Now, he has inked an extension worth 66.4M at about 22.1M per year for the final 3 yrs of his new 6 yr deal running through 2021. So the total value of his new contract must be apprx. 125MM over 6 yrs. With a flat cap hit across the entire period of about 22M a year I believe. He has 44M in guarantees added to the deal. So, Joe is here to stay long term as a Raven marshalling our offense elite or otherwise. Go to hell ESPN if you think we overpaid him. We may very well have overpaid him or even perhaps he isn't worth that kind of money. But, the bottom line is I would rather pay Flacco a couple of million more than I would pay Bradford for sure. As for Cousins getting paid 20M this year I'm not sure of that either because Cousins did have a better season last year than Flacco has ever had in the regular season but Flacco has won us a SB. Of course that must count for something right ESPN?

You need to add in about $25.5M in "dead money" for prorated portions of his signing/option bonuses from his last deal.

So from a cap perspective, deal is about $150M or so over a six year period. Average cap hit is going to be closer to $25M over that period.

[PalmBayRaven]

Whoa, Joe's post-SB stats & his new 40mil guarantee money getting slammed on espn nfl live. Evidently Joe's not elite. hmmm

When you look at Kurt Cousin and Sam Bradford's pay day and they haven't even won a Super Bowl much less a Playoff game then it is what it is. Joe does need to play better than last year for sure.

[WNC-Raven]

Whoa, Joe's post-SB stats & his new 40mil guarantee money getting slammed on espn nfl live. Evidently Joe's not elite. hmmm

That's because most, yes most tv personalities have no idea what they are talking about. How many times have each of us read a national article or watched a show about the Ravens and picked up on a broad generalization that wasnt true for the current team. You know like how Flacco only won the SB because he has a top 5 defense when we all know that was not the case in 2012. They are lazy and do not keep up with the current NFL. Ex players and journalism graduates with more personality than brains or skill. If Joe was released today how many hours until he is given offers by other teams that are even more than what we pay him. Fact is he is one of the best QB's in the league and I have never understood why non ravens fans dislike him so much. He is strong, quiet, never complains, leads his offense, wins more than he loses, humble, smart, ect.. I guess those are not exciting traits to the media but they are fantastic traits in a human being.

[steelcityraven]

5 thoughts on the deal:
# 1.... I am glad that we got it and done in a timely fashion. The cap relief will help over the next several years (as well as right now) #2. With all that guaranteed money... I hope he stays healthy moving forward # 3 Being a QB I fully expect him to rebound but if he does not... this became a giant gamble. #4 . I like Joe... I am glad that we have him... He has shown us that we can win the Lombardi with him... but I struggle to say he is worth getting more money per year then any other QB in this league. On the other hand... we don't have a good alternative and Litna took advantage of that. # 5 I hope that Joe realizes that this is an opportunity to cement his legacy and it motivates him to bring another title to BMROE!

[Purple Dawg 96]

Congratulations Joe "Iron Man" Flacco! I've been hard on Joe because I want the Ravens to win like I know they can and I wanted him to be the Ray Lewis of the Offense and make his players play better like Ray did! Two Super Bowls slipped through our fingers, let's start bringing them HOME! LETS GO JOE 123 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[RavensBaltimore]

  3 hours ago, Ravensfan23 said:

Flacco's contract had nothing to do with the win loss record. The whole purpose of the low cap hit early was to allow the Ravens to keep fielding a competitive team, which is exactly why Flacco was so receptive to restructuring the deal. 

Flacco having a low cap number allowed the Ravens to sign guys like Forsett, Pitta, Rice, Jimmy, Doom, Yanda, Monroe, Zuttah and Steve. The problem comes from many of those guys getting hurt after signing big deals. 

The injury to Pitta and legal issues of Rice is what backfired for this team not Flacco's low cap number early on.

Well, again, yes and no.

It did allow us to sign those players, but it also meant we had to let certain players go that we otherwise may have wanted to keep. His contract, and in particular the future effect of said contract on the team, is a MAJOR factor in whether we are able to resign players now and in the future.

The entire point of backloading a deal is to prolong a window where the team can sign certain players and make another run at a SB. That's the entire goal. This goal, obviously, was not accomplished. This is hindsight analysis of course, but knowing what we know now, we'd have been better off not backloading and not signing some of the players that we did, because at the end of the day, the purpose of signing said players is to win more games than you lose. In our case, we really haven't done that.

And because of that, the time has come where Joe will cost more from a salary cap perspective than ever before, and we aren't likely to see a major increase in production to reflect that growing cap price.

The same could be said about most players, which is why teams have gone towards a much different approach with contracts. They are looking to align contract costs with production as closely as possible.

I think we are very likely to see an increase in production to reflect that growing cap price. Last year, the FO finally showed a willingness to use multiple high draft picks on pass catchers, and Ozzie said he wants to add 1 or 2 more this offseason. Joe was on pace for about 4,500 yds last year, and that was with the worst receiving corps in the league. We are not going back to Cam Cameron's power running offense, and when Joe finally has some healthy weapons around him, there's no reason to believe the numbers won't increase as a result.

[Xmadraven]

He got a raise? This just worsens the problem in 3 years, Take 19 mil a year and be happy with it. I get the contract because we really didn't have a choice but this is just gonna hurt us long term (I said we didn't have a choice but TO pay Joe Flacco the first time) We screwed up the structuring then and unless the ravens have really fixed the cap spread this time (I doubt it) it's just gonna be worse in 3 years.

[rmcjacket23]

39 minutes ago, Xmadraven said:

He got a raise? This just worsens the problem in 3 years, Take 19 mil a year and be happy with it. I get the contract because we really didn't have a choice but this is just gonna hurt us long term (I said we didn't have a choice but TO pay Joe Flacco the first time) We screwed up the structuring then and unless the ravens have really fixed the cap spread this time (I doubt it) it's just gonna be worse in 3 years.

Cap hits will be flattened out on this extension. Expect cap hits between $22-28M over the next six years.

[Ravensfan23]

3 hours ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, again, yes and no.

It did allow us to sign those players, but it also meant we had to let certain players go that we otherwise may have wanted to keep. His contract, and in particular the future effect of said contract on the team, is a MAJOR factor in whether we are able to resign players now and in the future.

The entire point of backloading a deal is to prolong a window where the team can sign certain players and make another run at a SB. That's the entire goal. This goal, obviously, was not accomplished. This is hindsight analysis of course, but knowing what we know now, we'd have been better off not backloading and not signing some of the players that we did, because at the end of the day, the purpose of signing said players is to win more games than you lose. In our case, we really haven't done that.

And because of that, the time has come where Joe will cost more from a salary cap perspective than ever before, and we aren't likely to see a major increase in production to reflect that growing cap price.

The same could be said about most players, which is why teams have gone towards a much different approach with contracts. They are looking to align contract costs with production as closely as possible.

You make good points but again, Flacco's contract didn't force the Ravens hand in any way pertaining to who they had to let walk. Since Joe was signed....

Ray and Birk retiring had nothing to do with Joe. The Ravens weren't gonna give Ed Reed the dollars or couple year commitment he was looking for. They weren't gonna resign Oher while guys like Torrey, Elerbe, Mcphee, Kruger and Art Jones all priced themselves out of Baltimore. BTW none of those guys are living up to contracts signed. The only guy the Ravens probably regret is Boldin but just like Webb, Suggs, Yanda and Ngata the Ravens had a certain value on him and his cap number exceed it. Ngata and Boldin didn't like it and were shipped out. All those contracts would have carried big Cap hits in the years where Flacco's hit was small, so it's my belief that Joe's deal, back loaded or otherwise, had not impact on the decision to sign or allow any of those players walk. 

Now on the other hand you have Rice and Pitta taking up much needed cap room but not contributing to the team at all. There is no way of knowing this but I strongly feel if both Rice and Pitta were members of this team it'd be much better and that Win-Loss column would reflect it. 

The Ravens had minimal cap space over the past 3 years not because of Flacco's big up front bonus and back loaded contact. It's because of other contracts that ended badly. Flacco's deal was great all around for both player and team. Imo. Who do you think the Ravens couldn't sign because of Flacco?

[rmcjacket23]

2 minutes ago, Ravensfan23 said:

You make good points but again, Flacco's contract didn't force the Ravens hand in any way pertaining to who they had to let walk. Since Joe was signed....

Ray and Birk retiring had nothing to do with Joe. The Ravens weren't gonna give Ed Reed the dollars or couple year commitment he was looking for. They weren't gonna resign Oher while guys like Torrey, Elerbe, Mcphee, Kruger and Art Jones all priced themselves out of Baltimore. BTW none of those guys are living up to contracts signed. The only guy the Ravens probably regret is Boldin but just like Webb, Suggs, Yanda and Ngata the Ravens had a certain value on him and his cap number exceed it. Ngata and Boldin didn't like it and were shipped out. All those contracts would have carried big Cap hits in the years where Flacco's hit was small, so it's my belief that Joe's deal, back loaded or otherwise, had not impact on the decision to sign or allow any of those players walk. 

Now on the other hand you have Rice and Pitta taking up much needed cap room but not contributing to the team at all. There is no way of knowing this but I strongly feel if both Rice and Pitta were members of this team it'd be much better and that Win-Loss column would reflect it. 

The Ravens had minimal cap space over the past 3 years not because of Flacco's big up front bonus and back loaded contact. It's because of other contracts that ended badly. Flacco's deal was great all around for both player and team. Imo. Who do you think the Ravens couldn't sign because of Flacco?

Well, based on offers they did make, at least Ellerbe and Torrey. Doesn't mean we were wrong to let them walk, but those were players we made offers to that perhaps we make bigger offers to if we had more future cap space.

Maybe we sign KO to an extension last season instead of letting him get to FA? Do we know for sure that there weren't FAs we wanted to sign but didn't because of future cap space concerns?

If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that the FO analyzes our cap situation over at least a 2-3 year period, not just one. As such, that analysis affects decision making.

As I've told people before, remember that signing a guy to a long term deal means we need to be able to afford them in the long term, not just fitting them under the current year cap. So when the FO signs a player in 2014 or doesn't sign a player, they're looking at whether we can afford the player in 2016, 2017, etc.

When you know Joes cap number is in the high $20M range in 2016, you need to make sure any contracts you sign in 2014, 2015, etc. are as affordable then as they are now.

[gekaap]

New deal is expected to save the team in cap space the next three years. And then we're right back where we started. Sky high cap hit with a long term lock in contract for a QB who isn't worth that kind of commitment.

[rmcjacket23]

1 minute ago, gekaap said:

New deal is expected to save the team in cap space the next three years. And then we're right back where we started. Sky high cap hit with a long term lock in contract for a QB who isn't worth that kind of commitment.

Cap hits will be relatively flat. No major jumps.

[gekaap]

  4 hours ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, again, yes and no.

It did allow us to sign those players, but it also meant we had to let certain players go that we otherwise may have wanted to keep. His contract, and in particular the future effect of said contract on the team, is a MAJOR factor in whether we are able to resign players now and in the future.

The entire point of backloading a deal is to prolong a window where the team can sign certain players and make another run at a SB. That's the entire goal. This goal, obviously, was not accomplished. This is hindsight analysis of course, but knowing what we know now, we'd have been better off not backloading and not signing some of the players that we did, because at the end of the day, the purpose of signing said players is to win more games than you lose. In our case, we really haven't done that.

And because of that, the time has come where Joe will cost more from a salary cap perspective than ever before, and we aren't likely to see a major increase in production to reflect that growing cap price.

The same could be said about most players, which is why teams have gone towards a much different approach with contracts. They are looking to align contract costs with production as closely as possible.

You make good points but again, Flacco's contract didn't force the Ravens hand in any way pertaining to who they had to let walk. Since Joe was signed....

Ray and Birk retiring had nothing to do with Joe. The Ravens weren't gonna give Ed Reed the dollars or couple year commitment he was looking for. They weren't gonna resign Oher while guys like Torrey, Elerbe, Mcphee, Kruger and Art Jones all priced themselves out of Baltimore. BTW none of those guys are living up to contracts signed. The only guy the Ravens probably regret is Boldin but just like Webb, Suggs, Yanda and Ngata the Ravens had a certain value on him and his cap number exceed it. Ngata and Boldin didn't like it and were shipped out. All those contracts would have carried big Cap hits in the years where Flacco's hit was small, so it's my belief that Joe's deal, back loaded or otherwise, had not impact on the decision to sign or allow any of those players walk. 

Now on the other hand you have Rice and Pitta taking up much needed cap room but not contributing to the team at all. There is no way of knowing this but I strongly feel if both Rice and Pitta were members of this team it'd be much better and that Win-Loss column would reflect it. 

The Ravens had minimal cap space over the past 3 years not because of Flacco's big up front bonus and back loaded contact. It's because of other contracts that ended badly. Flacco's deal was great all around for both player and team. Imo. Who do you think the Ravens couldn't sign because of Flacco?

>>>Now on the other hand you have Rice and Pitta taking up much needed cap room but not contributing to the team at all.

Pitta's been in IR for the past two years, so he hasn't counted toward the salary cap. The cap penalties associated with Rice I believe are clear as of this year, thank goodness. I agree that we would have been a slightly better football team with Pitta. But it would have been a drop in the bucket ultimately, when you look at the root problems we've faced. Too many players landing on the IR, struggles to rebuild the O-line, etc.

[bigcatfrank1]

I was pretty close...Jackett

[vinnystp]

$22.5M - 2016 
$24.55M - 2017 
$24.75M - 2018 
$26.5M - 2019
$28.25M - 2020 
$24.25M - 2021

[rmcjacket23]

5 minutes ago, gekaap said:

>>>Now on the other hand you have Rice and Pitta taking up much needed cap room but not contributing to the team at all.

Pitta's been in IR for the past two years, so he hasn't counted toward the salary cap. The cap penalties associated with Rice I believe are clear as of this year, thank goodness. I agree that we would have been a slightly better football team with Pitta. But it would have been a drop in the bucket ultimately, when you look at the root problems we've faced. Too many players landing on the IR, struggles to rebuild the O-line, etc.

Players on IR still count against the cap. 

[Ravensfan23]

53 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, based on offers they did make, at least Ellerbe and Torrey. Doesn't mean we were wrong to let them walk, but those were players we made offers to that perhaps we make bigger offers to if we had more future cap space.

Maybe we sign KO to an extension last season instead of letting him get to FA? Do we know for sure that there weren't FAs we wanted to sign but didn't because of future cap space concerns?

If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that the FO analyzes our cap situation over at least a 2-3 year period, not just one. As such, that analysis affects decision making.

As I've told people before, remember that signing a guy to a long term deal means we need to be able to afford them in the long term, not just fitting them under the current year cap. So when the FO signs a player in 2014 or doesn't sign a player, they're looking at whether we can afford the player in 2016, 2017, etc.

When you know Joes cap number is in the high $20M range in 2016, you need to make sure any contracts you sign in 2014, 2015, etc. are as affordable then as they are now.

I personally can't see the Ravens giving Torrey nor Ellerbe the contracts they signed. But that's just me. Both guys were overvalued by other teams imo. 

I agree with you on how deals are put together and maybe Flacco's future cap hit may have played a role in potential contracts but overall I think the Ravens signed the guys they wanted to, Jimmy, Yanda etc. I think more then Flacco's contract backfiring it was the deals that resulted in injuries or legal issues and poor draft classes that has backfires since winning the Super Bowl.

 

[Swift 1]

13 hours ago, FloridalovesRavens said:

They have nothing better to do. I'm sure Joe could give a rat's tail what they think. Neither do I. Go Ravens.

Neither do I LOL

 

[hen826957]

Congrats Joe!!!!!! Now let's get some SuperBowls victories to our collection :-)

[AsianRice]

really excited to hear Joe extended for 3 years.....