Originally Posted by metaldude26

Ummm so now you are just making shit up. Brees makes nearly as much annually after he signed his own huge contract last year just for one year shorter. Is it absurd that a year after Brees signed a $100 million deal for five years at age 33 that Flacco would sign a $120 million deal for six years at age 28 oh and he just happens to be doing so after winning Super Bowl MVP? Absolutely not. This is the way the market works. Shit keeps escalating.

And as for Rodgers. The reason he isn't making that amount is because the Packers gambled that they new what they had in him and gave him a sweet offer after just his first season as a starter. That was back in 2008 and they gave him a six year $65 million deal, which looks awesome now but he was relatively unproven coming off a mediocre first season as a starter. When his deal is up after next year do you really think he's not going to get similarly paid? Hell he's probably going to make more. And he should. This is the free market.

And just so we are clear. All the smart teams know that there are certain positions that you spend whatever it takes to lock down because you are helpless without top notch talent there. Quarterback is that position and the Ravens will gladly ante up for the security of knowing they have a good quarterback for the next six years. That's six more years they can keep making runs at the playoffs.

Every year the Ravens (and other good teams like the Patriots) spend big at the necessary positions and then use their excellent scouting and player development to fill the rest of the holes on the cheap. And they will continue to do so with Flacco at the helm.

Just try to imagine the Ravens without Flacco in there. Who are they going to start? Tyrod Taylor? They had no leverage. They couldn't even use the franchise tag because the cheap one would have allowed teams to make bids (and trust that some desperate team would have bid as much if not more because no one realizes how terrible it is to not have a quarterback until they don't have one) and the big franchise tag would have ruined their cap space for free agency.

Simply put the Ravens have a better chance of winning with Joe Flacco than they do without him and that's by miles. In the salary cap era especially the days where you could build a juggernaut all over the field and not have top notch quarterbacking play are gone. Flacco is getting compensated this way because that's what the free market demands.

I wish Flacco would have taken a home town discount.

But the following statements are all true:

Flacco is playing a sport where the average career is 3.5 years.

NFL contracts aren't fully guaranteed.

There is an extensive history of NFL players experiencing severe chronic injuries long after retirement.

So why would Flacco take a home town discount?

I'd also posit that if we were living in some world where everything got reset and every NFL player was a free agent that Flacco wouldn't get the biggest contract but I guarantee he'd be in the top 15. He just took advantage of his impeccable timing. It's that simple.

And yeah, I will admit that there is some hubris on my part with my expectation that the Ravens will just continue to fill in the gaps on the cheap while continuing to draft and develop good talent but why should I expect any different? This management team has been together for years and they have proven time and time again that they know what they are doing.