Joe Flacco Deserves His New Contract.

Joe Flacco has gotten the biggest contract in NFL history for a quarterback, and everyone has most certainly chimed in with differing opinions about the Super Bowl MVP getting six years and $120.6 million.

Flacco has been the latest subject of the “Is he elite or his he not?” debate that seems to take place every season now that there is an apparent obsession with the NFL’s signal-caller hierarchy.

With a laser arm, 6’5 stature, and calm demeanor, Flacco has the physical tools that any fan would laud an NFL quarterback for having. But, there are moments where those physical tools don’t always equate to consistency.

He has his weird games, he has his great games, and he has his bad games, sometimes all in the succession of three weeks. He’s gone 10-31 in a 34-17 victory. He’s played well in defeat, such as his 28-43-for-385 day versus the Vikings way back in Minnesota. He was mediocre versus the Texans in the 2011 Playoffs only to lift his performance up the following week in a loss to the Patriots. This is the world of Joe Flacco: Weird, but productive.

So it’s no wonder why there is SOME apprehension on the part of some people when wondering if Flacco deserves to be the highest-paid QB of all-time. On my part, there’s not necessarily “no question” about it as much as there is “no problem” when it comes to it.

In discussing the Flacco deal with critics and cynics, you may find a bit of hypocrisy in their stance on the six years and $120.6 million.

Last season, Tebowmania had its supporters placing an emphasis on how Tebow winning games is all that mattered, regardless of how badly he played. The argument in discussing Tom Brady and the Patriots’ Super Bowl prospects always center around their string of ten straight division titles and Super Bowl victories, even if their last Super Bowl win was nine years ago. The reason people always discounted Matt Ryan and the Falcons’ regular season exploits is because they always came up short when the playoffs rolled around.

Insert Joe Flacco’s megadeal and you will have people who suggest Flacco shouldn’t get this contract based on his individual statistics, regardless of the fact that, despite the apparent emphasis on quarterbacks winning, Flacco has been the most consistent winning quarterback in the NFL while playing a large role on his team doing so.

Tom Brady, for all his career accomplishments and greatness, hasn’t won a Super Bowl title since 2004 and has been either outplayed or played to a draw by Mr. Flacco in their last two playoff meetings, the most recent one resulting in an eventual Super Bowl title.

For every argument that anyone can make about the guys with the gaudier statistics having a stronger case for a bigger contract than Flacco, ask them what has come about those statistics.

Brady, Peyton Manning, Matt Ryan, Tony Romo, Jay Cutler, Matt Schaub, and Philip Rivers are seven of the ten only in the NFL with more passing yards than Joe Flacco since 2008, Flacco’s rookie year. They also have a combined playoff record of 10-17 since that time.

Factoring in Eli Manning’s 4-0 playoff record since 2008 seems impressive until you point that was one in the ONE postseason he’s made in the last four seasons.

In his eleven years a starter, Drew Brees has five playoff victories and a Super Bowl championship/MVP to his name, but three of those victories came in that Super Bowl run four years and 19,000-plus passing yards ago. Both he and Eli both earned the biggest contracts in NFL history at the time their deals were signed.

So that leaves us with Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers are the only guys with a legitimate argument to make more than Flacco’s contract, if we’re so obsessed with winning, of course.

They both have ten combined playoff wins in the last five years, three combined Super Bowl wins, two Super Bowl MVPs between them, and only Rodgers will likely see that kind of money considering his age, individual statistics, and 5-2 playoff record, among other things.

Of course, doesn’t have the individual effect grasp on the game that a Brady, Rodgers, Brees, or Peyton has, and by no means am I saying that he is better than them. The only point there is to focus on is that Flacco doesn’t HAVE to be Brady, Brees, or Peyton to earn a bigger payday, no one does.

He doesn’t have the commercials that Peyton has, the personality of an Aaron Rodgers, or the hair of Tom Brady, assuming you’re into kind of stuff, but he wins. He has the second-most regular season wins (58) in the NFL since he’s come into the league, and the only guy with more wins than him, Matt Ryan, has eight less playoff victories and only one less loss.

Flacco can stand to be more consistent, he also can stand to be more dominant in order to justify the weight of this contract, but it’s hard to imagine that he could be more important for the Ravens at the right time.

Ray Lewis has been the face of the Ravens for 17 years, and he’s retiring. With a clearly declining defense, imminent mini-overhaul of player personnel, and need for a QB who puts you in a position to consistently win, the Ravens had no choice but to pay Flacco, and pay him well. That’s the simple of economics: supply and demand.

Franchising him would be a means of 1) alienating Flacco, and teammates, considering his historic playoff run and 2) risking a driving up of the price if Flacco is even better next year, which he has consistently done through his young career.

Sure, the number is gaudy, Flacco is weird, and the Ravens were put in an uncommon spot, having your free-agent-to-be QB win a Super Bowl during a postseason that only Joe Montana has duplicated, but that’s how this thing works.

It could be worse, guys. Winning matters, right?