No time like the present to ink Flacco to new deal

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Last season when Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciotti visited with us on the Ravens Rap in Ocean City, MD, as he so often does he spoke candidly about topics concerning his team. One of those topics was Joe Flacco.

At the time of the show (early November) it was Bisciotti’s opinion that it would not take $40 Million guaranteed to sign Flacco to a new long-term deal. I wonder if he still believes that.

One thing that we know for sure, Flacco’s price isn’t going to come down.

While he isn’t of the caliber of the Saints’ Drew Brees (who just signed a deal for 5 years, $100 Million which by most counts includes NFL-record $60 million in guaranteed payola) Brees’ deal did move the needle on franchise quarterback tags in a northerly direction along with the average price for Top 10 signal callers.

So waiting to get a new Flacco deal will NOT favor the Ravens.

And something tells me waiting won’t do much for Joe the Quarterback either.

Flacco has shown in the past to grow a bit testy with the media when there’s extreme redundancy in the questioning. What might happen if Flacco isn’t performing well early in the season? Will questions about his contract become more pointed and will they elevate the pressure?

Everyone within the Ravens organization has hitched their wagon of hope to Flacco. He’s unanimously viewed as the franchise quarterback. And at 27 Flacco should be able to perform to the value of his contract throughout a 7 year term.

Do the right thing and get this deal done not during the season, not after the season – NOW!

Here’s the deal: 7 years, $90M with escalators to take it to $105M.

And sorry Steve, the guaranteed dollars are $40M.

 

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About Tony Lombardi

Tony Lombardi
Tony is 24x7 Networks, LLC's founder (the parent of EutawStreetReport.com and RussellStreetReport.com) and has been contributing columns, blogs and inside scoops for the organization since its inception on July 3, 2003.  His work has been featured on various sports websites and he has been a guest on several local and...more

5 Raves on “No time like the present to ink Flacco to new deal

  1. Josh on said:

    Smart teams do not mess around with a young franchise QB entering his prime. I doubt a deal gets done before training camp, but a long-term agreement will happen at some point. I predict it happens before week one.

  2. Eric on said:

    The Ravens should be motivated to get this done. The 7 year $90M you suggest is probably where they land. If the team tags Flacco, it will cost them $17 – $18M for one year. They can avoid that exposure by signing him sooner rather than later.

  3. Mike on said:

    I think it will get done for slightly less than you are suggesting but not until our week 8 bye. As you say, by then Joe will have tired of the media questions.

  4. Traci on said:

    Wow.. Flacco is a good quarterback and the best we’ve ever had (which really isn’t saying much if you look at our history)… but he isn’t the caliber of Brees, Brady or Manning.. I don’t think he’d get that money if he went elsewhere either.

  5. Jacob on said:

    I agree. Flacco will not get any cheaper, so he should be signed before the season. If he’s not signed, I think the Ravens could wind up paying even more than they would if they signed Flacco this summer. Statistically, he’s coming off of his worse year. Also, QBs begin to enter their prime at 27/28. Look up Brees’s, Brady’s, Eli Manning, and River’s stats–all of them took a jump at when they were 27 or 28.

    Regardless of what they sign him for, though, people will howl at how much the Ravens spend.

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