Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco had not spoken to reporters beyond saying soon after the draft that he would not be speaking to reporters that day. That is until the day that he did finally speak to reporters, which was yesterday, during one of the team’s early OTA sessions.
Why wasn’t he speaking? Well, he’s paid a lot while not playing particularly great, and his team just used a first-round draft pick on a quarterback. Apparently he wasn’t ready with the amicable comments at the time, as others in similar situations in the recent past such as Alex Smith have been.
The Ravens did get a Super Bowl out of Flacco in 2012 after making him their first-round selection in 2008. In fact, Baltimore was actually quite a successful team during his first several seasons, but they have only won one playoff game, and been to the playoffs once, since then.
Which is why they traded back into the end of the first round during the 2018 NFL Draft in order to select Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, the fifth quarterback to go in the first round this year.
“I don’t know if I was surprised” by the team’s action, he said yesterday. “Obviously, when you pick a quarterback — when you pick anybody in the first round — it means something. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know exactly what it is”.
I think I know what it means, but I’ll let Flacco figure it out himself.
“But that’s not my job to worry about what it is. My job like I said is to keep my approach exactly what it’s been for the last 10 years and help our team go win football games”, he went on to say. “And we got a couple young tight ends, a lot of new wide receivers. My job is to get these guys on the same page and us operating on a high level”.
In his defense, the Ravens have been lacking in the talent department on the offensive side of the ball in recent years. He had Ray Rice with him from his rookie year through his Super Bowl season and had not been able to replace him since, though Alex Collins looks like a potential fit.
The team stripped its wide receiver room bare this offseason, getting rid of the top three targets from a year ago and adding three in free agency, drafting two more in the middle rounds. They used two high draft picks on tight ends, including one in the first round. And the offensive line has some healthy pieces returning to them at the guard positions.
While the team’s general manager in waiting said that there’s no bigger believer in Flacco than himself and that Jackson is a “tremendous insurance” policy, they’ve also conceded that they are already working on ways to get Jackson onto the field. I’m sure the 10-year veteran will appreciate that. Tim Tebow Package 2.0, anyone?
