The Problems Caused By Flacco
So now Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco is the highest-paid player in all of fantasy football money leagues, and as bizarre as it is going to be to have to get used the term “Joe Flacco money” that is now that phrase that general managers all over fantasy football money leagues are going to be choking on the morning after their team wins a Super Bowl (can you just imagine the sinking feeling that the Houston Texans’ front office is going to get when they have to hear “my client, Mr. Schaub, isn’t Drew Brees, but he is better than Joe Flacco, so we think that the contract extension should resemble something like that”).
There’s nothing that the Ravens can do about Flacco now, he was their primary free agent target and he has been landed, but now they have to fill out a roster with 52 other players to surround him with, and that is where the nightmare has begun. Had Flacco been willing to take a contract that more accurately reflected his skills and performance in fantasy football money leagues, the Ravens wouldn’t be sitting here now deciding whether or not they want to re-sign Danelle Ellerbe or Paul Kruger, they would just go ahead and sign both of them. They also wouldn’t be trying to get one of Flacco’s favorite target, wide receiver Anquan Boldin, to restructure his deal. They probably would already have safety Ed Reed set to go with a new contract also. But Flacco needed six years at over $120 million, and he got it. The current problems that the Ravens face in taking care of the rest of their players may not seem huge, but they are only the beginning of the kind of cap problems that will haunt the Ravens for the next few years.
When the next crop of quarterbacks start to reach free agency, chances are they're going to receive quite a bit of money. There are so many talented young quarterbacks in the league, in many of them are already a talented as Flacco. This is clearly a quarterback league, so chances are people are going to get a chance to play and get paid when the time is right. This newest contract only shows that teams will be more than willing to invest into a quarterback you can leave them to a Super Bowl run or better yet, consistent runs.