Writer who put Flacco in his 7th tier of QBs (21st overall) offers his explanation
The latest Flacco discreditor, Cian Fahey, whose quarterback rankings I wrote a full blog about yesterday, offered his explanation as to why he projected Flacco so poorly. He referenced this tweet from May as the main reason:
Joe Flacco quietly kinda sucked last year. He threw an interceptable pass once every 20.3 attempts: pic.twitter.com/fTB4e1ZqTf
— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) May 10, 2015
Cian created that chart, and Flacco doesn’t come out smelling all that great from his analysis. I appreciate the work that goes into creating something like this, but there is a large degree of subjectivity to determining whether a pass is “interceptable.” Cian goes on to discredit the rest of Flacco’s work last season because of Gary Kubiak.
Kubiak’s offense helped his raw stats remain ok. — Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) July 7, 2015
This is where I have the biggest problem with his list. All an offensive coordinator can do is put players in position to make plays. It’s up to the players to make them. Which Flacco did very well last season, as many other film and stat guys (or both, like Cian) would tell you. For the full “Interceptable Passes” project, click here.
More NFL QB rankings fun – this one ranks Joe highly
Andy Benoit of MMQB thinks highly of our gun-slinging quarterback. He ranks him as the 8th best quarterback in the league. Here is why:
“Maybe the strongest arm in the NFL (yes, arm strength matters), and he’s used it aptly in multiple schemes in recent years. It’s still incredible how little talk there is about his 2012 playoff run, which is probably the best ever.”
Andy is right; not enough people talk about the 2012 playoff run. Still, it’s good to see more credit given to Flacco from a national writer. LINK
Best of the Best (Round 2): Joe Flacco vs. Terrell Suggs
Now here is where things get interesting. In the first round, Flacco bested Chris McAlister (no surprise there) and Suggs beat out Todd Heap. The two are now facing off in the second round of CSN Baltimore’s Best of the Best series which is trying to figure out who the best Raven of all time is. My prediction on this one has got to be Joe Flacco. LINK
The Team Behind The Team: Grounds Crew
Here comes another edition of the Ravens’ photo essay series, “The Team Behind The Team” from photographer Shawn Hubbard and writer Garrett Downing. In this edition, it’s the grounds crew, who is responsible for both the grounds at One Winning Drive and at M&T Bank Stadium. They also are responsible for painting the town purple come playoff time. They also give us a pretty cool time-lapse video of when the grounds crew had to switch the field at M&T Bank Stadium from an Army-Navy game to a Ravens game the next day. LINK
No. 19 Most Influential Person in NFL for 2015: Sarah Thomas
Amy Trask of MMQB hopes that the first female NFL official, Sarah Thomas is booed when she comes out onto the field.
Wait, what? Why would she want that?
Well, because every other official in the NFL is booed. Which makes sense, but I don’t think she will get booed. Generally, it’s the head referee who gets booed when the call is made. The point remains the same, though, and Trask does a good job of making it. LINK
