Joe Flacco recently raised eyebrows when he responded to a question about his agent saying Flacco was a top five quarterback. Here’s what Flacco told SportsRadioInterviews.com:
“I assume everybody thinks they’re a top-five quarterback. I mean, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’m top five, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’d be very successful at my job if I didn’t feel that way.”
Sure Flacco, you’re the best, and fairy tales are factual, unicorns exist, and my best friend is Bigfoot.
I don’t have a problem with a quarterback showing confidence in himself like when Eli Manning said he thought he was elite last year. That’s fine, but it’s a big jump from considering yourself elite to considering yourself the best in the league, especially when Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are still active.
Furthermore, it’s time for Flacco to shut up about getting top-five money and get it done on the field. In some systems, the quarterback is an indispensable piece of the puzzle such as Manning was in Indianapolis, but that’s not the case in Baltimore. If the Ravens lost Flacco for an entire year, they wouldn’t miss much of a beat, and they’d still be very likely to make the playoffs.
Joe Flacco’s a smart guy which is why statements like this don’t make any sense. You can’t blame a guy for trying to get big money, even if he may not necessarily warrant such an expenditure by his team. My problem with a statement like this is that he’s never shown any evidence on the field that he is in fact the best quarterback in the league.
Earlier in the year, Flacco led the Ravens down the field, and threw a perfect game winning pass to Lee Evans that would have had the Ravens Super Bowl bound, but it wasn’t meant to be. Flacco deserves a lot of credit for doing what so many teams couldn’t do over the past decade in turning in a performance good enough to beat the Patriots. But as I said, it just wasn’t meant to be. The fact of the matter is that Flacco may or may not be hitting his peak. He still has a “high ceiling” in the talent department, but he has to put it together on the field before anyone should begin shoveling money onto his front porch.
