Ravens Fan- Joe Flacco Q and A

[The Excellector]

Greetings to everyone on the board. This is my first post. I am a Ravens fan and have been following the team since the beginning. I am still, also a huge Joe Flacco fan. I’m upset at how it ended here in Baltimore and want Flacco to do well in Denver. I usually post at RussellStreetReport.com (Ravens stadium is located on Russell St.). I am definitely more of a Flacco apologist, but I can still call a spade a spade. So I thought to make a thread for anyone who had questions about Flacco, that may not know as much about him or only have national media sentiment to go off of. For example, I did read one person say that it’s generally agreed that the defense carried Flacco to a title and that is definitely not how the 2012 post-season run went down.

Feel free to fire away questions and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

[MarshallMoss]

Greetings to everyone on the board. This is my first post. I am a Ravens fan and have been following the team since the beginning. I am still, also a huge Joe Flacco fan. I’m upset at how it ended here in Baltimore and want Flacco to do well in Denver. I usually post at RussellStreetReport.com (Ravens stadium is located on Russell St.). I am definitely more of a Flacco apologist, but I can still call a spade a spade. So I thought to make a thread for anyone who had questions about Flacco, that may not know as much about him or only have national media sentiment to go off of. For example, I did read one person say that it’s generally agreed that the defense carried Flacco to a title and that is definitely not how the 2012 post-season run went down.

Feel free to fire away questions and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

This is cool of you. Welcome aboard.

I witnessed Flacco just this last year rip apart our Broncos D. The first few games of the season he was dominating. Two questions for you:

1. Why has Flacco as a regular season QB just been meh statistically?

2. There is no doubt Flacco has a huge arm. In the right system with the right players, what do you think Flacco's ceiling is? And what NFL qb would he most resemble at his ceiling past or present?

Appreciate your feedback

[The Excellector]

Thank you for the welcome.

1. John Harbaugh is a Head Coach from that Ol’ Bo Schembechler philosophy of football. He prefers to rely on his defense heavily, only using the offense to control the clock and limit mistakes. Very risk averse and one to sit on leads. Whereas some offenses keep their proverbial foot on the gas, Harbaugh tends to shut it down once he gets a lead. In the first few years of Flacco’s career, he really didn’t have to do much in the playoffs for them to win those games. Harbaugh tried to continue with that approach, but around 2010, started to realize that when it’s win or go home he had to let the offense go. However, he still keeps that risk averse approach during the regular season.

The Ravens have generally had poor line play over the years. If someone is the type to rely on analytics they may think differently. Nonetheless, Flacco’s not been able to get comfortable in the pocket and trust his protection unless they keep in extra blockers. Pretty much, since Kubiak left. The WR corps’ they’ve put out there over the years have been some of the worst in the league as well. There’s a lot of different things that go into it.

Now, one thing about Flacco himself is that he used to give you one or two 4 turnover type games a year. Whereas now, he’ll still give you one, maybe two, but they just won’t be high turnover games. They’ll just be really bad games.

Honestly, Baltimore is not a team that’s set up for the QB to have good statistical success.

The second one I’ll have to think about.

[The Excellector]

In my personal opinion, Joe Flacco’s ceiling is pretty high if I’d have to take a guess, but it’s such an unknown. The narrative around Flacco, nationally, is that he needs a strong rush offense and defense to lean on. The problem I have with that is that the Ravens have been trying to win that way for twenty years now. They haven’t done it any differently since Vinny Testeverde was our QB. So, we’ve never actually seen Flacco in any other situation to truly say whether or not he can do anything else. For example, look at the offense that Matt Ryan had to work with, the year he won the Super Bowl. We’ve never seen Flacco with that sort of talent. Not even the year the Ravens won the title. We’ve not seen Flacco in that sort of team philosophy, where the offense isn’t just reduced to scoring 25 points and parking the bus. There have been several years, since the Super Bowl, that a healthy Mohammed Sanu has been better than Flacco’s entire WR corps combined. Let alone a talent like Julio Jones.

So, if you ask me, I’d say his ceiling is pretty high. If anything concerned me it’d be his durability. 2015, he shredded his knee. 2016, he rushed back from it and wasn’t feeling better until the second half of the season. In 2017, it was a back issue and last year it was a hip. He’ll play through some serious injuries, but if I had to pick one thing that could keep him from reaching his ceiling, injuries would be it.

[SMR81]

Greetings to everyone on the board. This is my first post. I am a Ravens fan and have been following the team since the beginning. I am still, also a huge Joe Flacco fan. I’m upset at how it ended here in Baltimore and want Flacco to do well in Denver. I usually post at RussellStreetReport.com (Ravens stadium is located on Russell St.). I am definitely more of a Flacco apologist, but I can still call a spade a spade. So I thought to make a thread for anyone who had questions about Flacco, that may not know as much about him or only have national media sentiment to go off of. For example, I did read one person say that it’s generally agreed that the defense carried Flacco to a title and that is definitely not how the 2012 post-season run went down.

Feel free to fire away questions and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

Do you like his fit with Denver’s RBs and WR group? Assuming Sanders returns close to form.

[Sam_Z]

This is cool of you. Welcome aboard.

I witnessed Flacco just this last year rip apart our Broncos D. The first few games of the season he was dominating. Two questions for you:

1. Why has Flacco as a regular season QB just been meh statistically?

2. There is no doubt Flacco has a huge arm. In the right system with the right players, what do you think Flacco's ceiling is? And what NFL qb would he most resemble at his ceiling past or present?

Appreciate your feedback

Has he ever had a truly offensive guru other than Kubiak?

If you ask me, Flacco has done more than most ppl want to give him credit for. Build a strong team around him and let’s see what he can do!

[The Excellector]

Yes. Flacco has experience in this offense and the three WRs at the top of the depth chart compliment each other well. So long as Sutton continues to grow, Flacco will like hitting him on intermediate-deep routes along the boundary and up the seam. Sutton may have some issue catching Flacco’s passes early on though. Flacco throws with serious zip, even today. Sutton has ‘some’ T.O potential in him and their playing styles are similar, in my opinion. Unfortunately, they both share the tendency of letting balls get in on their body too much. So, I could see Sutton taking some time to adjust.

Flacco’s best throws are 10-15 yards along the boundary. He made a living on those throws to Derrick Mason when he was younger. So, I could see him taking well to Sanders the fastest. Since, of the three, he can run those routes the best.

He will like Hamilton, but won’t make him a focal point right away. Over the middle, he prefers his TEs, but I watched Hamilton’s tape when he came out, he’s going to be a decent slot guy. I wanted the Ravens to take him.

In Baltimore, there was a couple of seasons where Flacco’s pass attempts were really high, but the throws were safe throws. Mainly checkdowns. In Denver, I don’t see it being so much out of necessity, but Lindsay will be a guy he likes. If he could find Ray Rice through a stack of lineman, he can hit Lindsay.

[The Excellector]

Has he ever had a truly offensive guru other than Kubiak?

If you ask me, Flacco has done more than most ppl want to give him credit for. Build a strong team around him and let’s see what he can do!

Flacco started out with Cam Cameron, who is good for young QBs. However, he’s the type of guy you want to move on from once that second year is over. The Ravens didn’t. Jim Zorn was Flacco’s QB coach in 10’ and Flacco improved quite a bit, but Flacco and Zorn clashed with Cameron over philosophical differences and Harbaugh, being loyal to Cameron, actually fired Zorn, despite Flacco having his best season and against his wishes. Cameron eventually got fired during the Super Bowl season. Caldwell took over and the only change he made was to put Boldin in the slot the way he was in Arizona, since Cameron had him outside running twenty yards down the field. They did make a line switch, but injury also played a role in that.

Caldwell returned in 2013, but he really wasn’t working with much. Kubiak took over in 14’ and that was the year they beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs for the first time in team history, and almost beat New England again. Flacco took a sit into double coverage, but watching the replay, the throw actually gets there, but Torrey Smith misjudges it in the air, doesn’t make an attempt for it and it gets picked. That play is on YouTube.

Since then, Trestman in 15’ being asked to run Cameron’s scheme. Trestman fired a few weeks into 16’ with Marty taking over running Trestman’s schemes. 17’ was Marty running his scheme with Roman’s blocking scheme and same with 18’. It’s been a mess for years. No symmetry what so ever.

[BroncoFanDK]

@Excellector.

You obviously like Flacco a lot, and it has always puzzled me that there can be so little respect around a QB that gets the job done when the lights are on.

We have seen QB's with great arm talent like Jay Cutler fail, guys with shaky elements of their play like Tebow and Plummer succeeding in spite of their limitations and then gods like Elway and Manning.

It is easy to see that Flacco has great arm talent and is clearly the most physically gifted QB we have had since Cutler, but what do you like the least about Flacco, and if he fails to deliver his end of the bargain, then what will be the reason?

[lvbronx]

In keeping with Bronco QB history, what candy does Flacco give out to kids for Halloween?

[Papa-pwn]

Is there a worse QB with more meaningless excuses consistently made for him in recent history?

Upon watching several dozen Ravens games, the teams weren't very good, but he seemed to have been holding the team back with his poor play yet there is a group of fans dead set on blaming everyone else for his issues.

Why is that? Is it his face? His personality?

[JW7]

Is there a worse QB with more meaningless excuses consistently made for him in recent history?

Upon watching several dozen Ravens games, the teams weren't very good, but he seemed to have been holding the team back with his poor play yet there is a group of fans dead set on blaming everyone else for his issues.

Why is that? Is it his face? His personality?

I think you're talking about Aaron Rodgers here...

[The Excellector]

The thing I like the least about Flacco is that if the players around him start to fail him, he does have a tendency to try and force passes, feeling like he has to do everything himself. I think it depends on the talent level. If he’s confident in the talent level than he is fine. If he’s not confident in the talent level, you can tell that when things go south, he will from time to time try to do too much.

That, and the man eat McNuggets. I eat clean, so that drives me nuts.

[TheAsianPA]

Is there a worse QB with more meaningless excuses consistently made for him in recent history?

Upon watching several dozen Ravens games, the teams weren't very good, but he seemed to have been holding the team back with his poor play yet there is a group of fans dead set on blaming everyone else for his issues.

Why is that? Is it his face? His personality?

He's wearing orange and blue now. I hope he succeeds, but the fact that there were zero fans saying these things about him until he became a Broncos tells me there's an inconsistency in how QB's are viewed.

[The Excellector]

Don’t know the trick or treat answer.