[News] Ozzie Newsome Compares Joe Flacco's Contract To Other NFL Quarterbacks

[BR News]

Ozzie Newsome said he’s talked to many other general managers who can’t sleep at night.

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[budman]

Ozzie pretty much hit the nail on the head with the comparisons. Enough said.

[btfan2]

Waco for Flacco, and he's also a good decent man.... nuff said

[fusuymada]

I would have kept Daryl Smith and paid Joe less. Sorry, I like Flacco but he clearly can't carry a team and he needs talent around him. Now we start cutting the talent to pay for an average qb who has accuracy issues and can play well about 15 minutes out of 60. Flacco is what he is and we know what he is but he is no where near the top 20 QBs in the league but they are paying him like he is Tom Brady. Ozzie knows he has to go out and sell the deal because it was not a good deal for Baltimore (as every analyst and expert in the world has already said). We brought Flacco in with a good defense as a rookie and let him grow. I think that is what we should have done now. We should have drafted that QB this year and let Joe play out his existing deal and move on.

[rmcjacket23]

6 minutes ago, fusuymada said:

I would have kept Daryl Smith and paid Joe less. Sorry, I like Flacco but he clearly can't carry a team and he needs talent around him. Now we start cutting the talent to pay for an average qb who has accuracy issues and can play well about 15 minutes out of 60. Flacco is what he is and we know what he is but he is no where near the top 20 QBs in the league but they are paying him like he is Tom Brady. Ozzie knows he has to go out and sell the deal because it was not a good deal for Baltimore (as every analyst and expert in the world has already said). We brought Flacco in with a good defense as a rookie and let him grow. I think that is what we should have done now. We should have drafted that QB this year and let Joe play out his existing deal and move on.

1. I don't think the two are related. Daryl has MAYBE 1-2 years left in this league, and clearly is declining. He'd see a significant reduction in snaps if he were back, and I think they'd have cut him regardless of QB contract situation.

2. There certainly aren't 20 QBs in the league better than Joe. Some would argue there aren't even 20 franchise QBs in the entire league.

3. Most analysts like this deal a lot more than the old one. Plus, there's the obvious caveat of many analysts don't understand player contracts or cap space and therefore simply don't know what they're talking about.

4. There aren't any good QBs coming out of college. Its a baron wasteland.

[hen826957]

@fusuymada Did you just say that are 20 Qbs in the league are better than Joe? Whats wrong with you man? Are you serious or just angry?

[robbie29]

I would have kept Daryl Smith and paid Joe less. Sorry, I like Flacco but he clearly can't carry a team and he needs talent around him. Now we start cutting the talent to pay for an average qb who has accuracy issues and can play well about 15 minutes out of 60. Flacco is what he is and we know what he is but he is no where near the top 20 QBs in the league but they are paying him like he is Tom Brady. Ozzie knows he has to go out and sell the deal because it was not a good deal for Baltimore (as every analyst and expert in the world has already said). We brought Flacco in with a good defense as a rookie and let him grow. I think that is what we should have done now. We should have drafted that QB this year and let Joe play out his existing deal and move on.

I agree. Letting Daryl Smith go makes me about throw up. He was one of very, very few Ravens who had not missed a start in three years. One person on this board made the comment that he is "clearly declining." Please back up that comment with something quantifiable, bc he hasn't shown any clear decline that I've seen. On the contrary, the guy is reliable, smart, and is definitely above average, talent-wise (traits that were extremely lacking from last year's team). We're fortunate that we've got Mosley with 2 years under his belt at ILB, but I think letting Smith go is going to come back to haunt us. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up signing with an AFC North team. Not a good day today.

[rmcjacket23]

Just now, robbie29 said:

I agree. Letting Daryl Smith go makes me about throw up. He was one of very, very few Ravens who had not missed a start in three years. One person on this board made the comment that he is "clearly declining." Please back up that comment with something quantifiable, bc he hasn't shown any clear decline that I've seen. On the contrary, the guy is reliable, smart, and is definitely above average, talent-wise (traits that were extremely lacking from last year's team). We're fortunate that we've got Mosley with 2 years under his belt at ILB, but I think letting Smith go is going to come back to haunt us. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up signing with an AFC North team. Not a good day today.

Well, if a team starts taking you off the field on 3rd downs and replacing you with a younger, faster MLB, that would sort of be a pretty strong indication of being in decline.

How exactly does one quantify the value of a middle linebacker? Tackles?

[Edug27]

"with a record-setting average salary of $21.1 million over the next six years"

Again.. I don't get this part

[Ravenous_Ravens]

People listen up and stop complaining about Flacco's contract being overpaid. You are looking at it as though he is getting $120 million etc all cash today. He isn't. This contract takes into account current market value (going rate for QB on open market) and the assumed market value of a QB on the open market down the road into the future. Like many good articles pointed out, by the time the gets to the more expensive years in the contract QB's overall value will have also climbed meaning his contract is right in line with a fair open market evaluation. If your going to complain your better get all the facts and get your facts straight. QB's get paid a lot of money period, look at Bradford and Cousins contract's and they have far less of a resume or post season success. Just stop the whining and complaining. If you like talking overpaid go follow baseball.

[TheBigPurpleBird]

@fusuymada

I can't believe your serious, 20 QB's better than Joe? I might be able to agree with you on that he can't carry a team on his own, but there are maybe 3 QB's in this league that can. Re-read the article and ask yourself who you would trade Flacco for? I honestly wouldn't trade him for Brady, and I know Brady is a better QB on paper, but how many years does he have left? (plus, everytime we meet in the playoffs, Flacco has a MUCH better game than Brady). Rodgers, sure, he is probably the best QB in the league right now, but look how he did last year without talent, and Joe seems to be in that same situation every year. Luck? Injury concern right now, but he is good and maybe better. Wilson and Newton round out the other two possibilities, but if you watched the last SB, you have to know that he needs to mature quite a bit more and it would be hard to argue that the pressure didn't get to him, Flacco would have been much better in the same situation. I am not sold on Wilson yet, but last year he lit it up, so if he can maintain that again this year then an argument could be made. I was impressed with his playoff performances this year.

Brees, Rivers, Romo, Manning (Peyton not Eli), Palmer are all too old, and while they might have better stats in some categories, (Brees consistently throws for more than 4k a season as an example), they are not more reliable nor are they a notch above. I wouldn't take Rothlisbooger or Eli either, not over Joe at least.

Here is the one thing that you have to acknowledge about Flacco, when the game is on the line, no matter how good or bad he has done up to that minute, it has no effect on the next play. He knows how to win, and the bigger the game the better he plays. He could be more consistent, but my gosh, how about the team provide some consistency for him? How many coordinators? How many different systems? How many different receivers, or more specifically; how many top notch receivers? For better or worse, the top QB's in this league have had some consistency and more specifically had a top flight receiver. Also, why you have to be excited that Steve Smith is coming back!

If you have been a fan of the Ravens long enough, the QB position has been our Achilles for years. Credit the D all you want, but that dominate force that could win the game on their own without any O, has not been there since 2003. I would wager that there are 20 teams out there that would trade their 1st round pick and their starting QB for Flacco, and be happy paying him what the Ravens are.

Just saying, you can hate all you want, but thats all your really doing, because there really are not more than a few options at best that would be better than Joe... at least if your being honest and not biased.

[FloridalovesRavens]

I would have kept Daryl Smith and paid Joe less. Sorry, I like Flacco but he clearly can't carry a team and he needs talent around him. Now we start cutting the talent to pay for an average qb who has accuracy issues and can play well about 15 minutes out of 60. Flacco is what he is and we know what he is but he is no where near the top 20 QBs in the league but they are paying him like he is Tom Brady. Ozzie knows he has to go out and sell the deal because it was not a good deal for Baltimore (as every analyst and expert in the world has already said). We brought Flacco in with a good defense as a rookie and let him grow. I think that is what we should have done now. We should have drafted that QB this year and let Joe play out his existing deal and move on.

Looks to me like we can now invest in some more talent since this new deal with Joe. No QBs out there worth what Joe has given us the last 8 seasons. He will not be a big stat guy but who cares. Wins count more. Go Ravens.

[WNC-Raven]

It's bad enough that we have to hear the same uneducated (football that is) rhetoric about Joe but do we really need to hear that on here by Ravens fans? The Ravens DID NOT release all of those players after 2012 because of Joe's contract and they are NOT releasing players this year because of Joe's contract. Rosters change every year. Players are let go. It is sometimes because they are free agents and get better offers elsewhere but typically it is because they have lost a step and are not worth what we are paying them. I thought Daryl Smith stepped in and pretty seamlessly picked up where Ray left off. He has been a fantastic member of our team but his time has come. He has noticeably lost a step and was subbed on almost every pass play last year due to this. If he ends up coming back at a reduced salary that is fine but we need to move on to someone that can cover.

[WNC-Raven]

As for the "few" fans that are always calling for Joe to be replaced or let go, who exactly would you sign and for how much money? Some of you act like we could sign Rodgers for 15 mil a year. Some of you will never be happy. If you want to see who reigns supreme in the AFC just search for AFC Championship game winners. I'll save you some time because it is 15 years of Brady, Manning, Rothlesberger and Flacco. And we had to beat all 3 of them to get to the SB in 2012. There is a definite monopoly in the AFC and we are a part of it since Flacco came to town.

[OzzieBisciotti]

Congrats to Joe and Linta for taking it to the house with Ozzie and Pat Moriarty. While Joe isn't elite, he's definitely a winner and an above avg qb, he's getting elite money.

Definition of an elite qb: A qb who can put the team on his shoulders and can will his team to win against the odds, esp when the rest of the team is playing poorly. To Joe's defense, we never drafted/ picked up FAs that were game changing WRs...

[OzzieBisciotti]

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nfl-ravens-gm-ozzie-newsome-kirk-cousins-sam-bradford-joe-flacco-030316

[Ravens_Flock]

People can (and will) continue saying whatever they wish about whether Joe is overpaid or not. The fact of the matter is though, he IS being paid a LOT, and in 2013 and 2015, he was not playing like a $120m QB. That is not an arguable point. He didn't. He had a fairly successful year in 2014, arguably due to Kubiak's system, that we were then summarily told by the front office would remain intact, even though the wisest among us knew that was a lie, which it proved to be.

Joe is not a guy that can carry a team on his back, period. He had the success he did in 2014 because we had a dominant and successful run game. The Ravens, before Joe or during, have only ever had success with a good D and a good run game. You see the results of us having neither in 2013 and 2015. And even IN 2014, we ultimately failed for two reasons: our secondary was hot garbage (still is), and because after all these years, Joe will still force passes he doesn't need to that result in bonehead INTs.

So.....argue amongst yourselves all you want as to Flacco's actual $$$$ worth. But what can't really be argued, is that outside of some flashes in 2014, he has not as of YET really lived up to the big contract he signed after the SB. Will he? Who knows.

[OzzieBisciotti]

People can (and will) continue saying whatever they wish about whether Joe is overpaid or not. The fact of the matter is though, he IS being paid a LOT, and in 2013 and 2015, he was not playing like a $120m QB. That is not an arguable point. He didn't. He had a fairly successful year in 2014, arguably due to Kubiak's system, that we were then summarily told by the front office would remain intact, even though the wisest among us knew that was a lie, which it proved to be.

Joe is not a guy that can carry a team on his back, period. He had the success he did in 2014 because we had a dominant and successful run game. The Ravens, before Joe or during, have only ever had success with a good D and a good run game. You see the results of us having neither in 2013 and 2015. And even IN 2014, we ultimately failed for two reasons: our secondary was hot garbage (still is), and because after all these years, Joe will still force passes he doesn't need to that result in bonehead INTs.

So.....argue amongst yourselves all you want as to Flacco's actual $$$$ worth. But what can't really be argued, is that outside of some flashes in 2014, he has not as of YET really lived up to the big contract he signed after the SB. Will he? Who knows.

Well stated- I agree.

[rmcjacket23]

12 hours ago, Ravens_Flock said:

People can (and will) continue saying whatever they wish about whether Joe is overpaid or not. The fact of the matter is though, he IS being paid a LOT, and in 2013 and 2015, he was not playing like a $120m QB. That is not an arguable point. He didn't. He had a fairly successful year in 2014, arguably due to Kubiak's system, that we were then summarily told by the front office would remain intact, even though the wisest among us knew that was a lie, which it proved to be.

Joe is not a guy that can carry a team on his back, period. He had the success he did in 2014 because we had a dominant and successful run game. The Ravens, before Joe or during, have only ever had success with a good D and a good run game. You see the results of us having neither in 2013 and 2015. And even IN 2014, we ultimately failed for two reasons: our secondary was hot garbage (still is), and because after all these years, Joe will still force passes he doesn't need to that result in bonehead INTs.

So.....argue amongst yourselves all you want as to Flacco's actual $$$$ worth. But what can't really be argued, is that outside of some flashes in 2014, he has not as of YET really lived up to the big contract he signed after the SB. Will he? Who knows.

1. For the most part, I agree with this, though again I don't understand why people still think the 2012 Ravens team had a good defense. I think people think that based on the names on the back of the jerseys, instead of the actual production on the field, which is what makes a good defense. That defense was about as inconsistent as it gets, even through the playoffs. I think this stigma is mainly due to the 2008-2010 time frame, when our defense was highly dominant and we were a highly dominant team at running the football. From about 2011 on, that really hasn't been the case.

An easy case could be made that the 2013 D was significantly better than the 2012 one. Granted, 2013 we struggled because of a horrific running game and a lack of leadership and experience on defense, though I still thought that defense overall played better. Since then though we have regressed in that area significantly.

2. At the end of the day, I think fans spend too much time looking at players contracts and arguing over "does this guy live up to this" and blah blah blah. There's no set statistical parameter for determining whether somebody has lived up to their contract or not, just like there's no W/L success parameter either. 

When it comes to compensation for QBs these days, its just a simple supply/demand analysis. Can you find somebody better, how much cheaper would they cost, and how long will it take you to find that person? These days, the answers are "probably not, a rookie salary, possibly a decade or longer".

When you answer those questions out loud, every owner will gladly "overpay" somebody by a significant amount, because the cost of not doing so is more than the cost of doing so.

Beyond that, analyzing whether somebody "lives up to a contract" or not is about an inherently subjective argument as anybody can have, and thus an irrelevant one.