It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, the Ravens have a lot of work to do this offseason. In order for them to optimize their roster given the team’s cap constraints, the Ravens must get a new deal done with Joe Flacco before the new league year begins. Unfortunately the fly in the ointment could very well be Flacco’s agent Joe Linta.

Press play for more or read the transcript below…

On September 28, 2014 the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Carolina Panthers by the score of 38-10. Sixteen months later the winners were at home licking the wounds of a disastrous 2015 season while the losers were Super Bowl 50 favorites.

Things can and do change quickly in the National Football League.

And that means that the Ravens can bounce back in 2016. They have as sound of a brain trust as any of the league’s front offices and despite their (5-11) record, the Ravens have plenty of talent, when healthy.

What is missing from the team are the playmakers that the Ravens once had – like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, a younger Terrell Suggs – even a Todd Heap or Jamal Lewis. The nucleus is there but they need guys who can make splash plays.

So perhaps more so than in any other offseason the Ravens need to find a way to acquire a couple of difference makers, whether that be by way of free agency or trade, or the draft.

The Ravens have plenty of draft picks in 2016 but those don’t always translate to immediate production. The right veteran moves can produce immediately but there’s just one problem – the Ravens are handcuffed by a very tight salary cap.

Quick relief could be provided by a restructured deal for Joe Flacco who single-handedly eats up over 19% of the team’s projected $150M cap. But the concept of “quick” is something that is seemingly foreign to Flacco’s agent Joe Linta.

Linta doesn’t have a lengthy list of clients and those he does have aren’t exactly stars. Besides Flacco the standout names on Linta’s roster (and I use the term very loosely) are: Willie Colon, Brian Hoyer, Mike Golic, Jr., former Raven Jeremy Ross and current Raven Kyle Juszczyk.

So it’s safe to say Linta’s biggest meal ticket wears No. 5 for the Ravens.

And there’s a danger in that. An agent like say Drew Rosenhaus has a lengthy list of household names that populate his client roster. Rosenhaus is known to be a deal maker. He gets things done and moves on to the next client in need. He might leave a bit of money on the table at times for the benefit of his relationships with teams.

Linta isn’t that guy and his dependence upon Flacco is worrisome. Not that he won’t get a deal done but that he won’t get a deal done in a timely fashion because he’s working his meal ticket’s deal to the very end.

If the Ravens don’t get a new deal with Flacco by March 9 at 4PM, they won’t be participants in free agency because their checkbook will be filled with zeros in all the wrong places.

Unless of course the Ravens start cutting heavily in other areas and blow up the roster.

More on that in a few days.

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