What Happened to the Ravens?

Tyipcally, when you win the Super Bowl it means you've done something right and you've got something special. Most teams in that situation try to keep the team together as much as possible and attempt to repeat the following season. On a 53 man roster there are bound to be some moves and retirees, but you try to keep the core group together. Usually the players also like to stick around as winning championships is an enjoyable experience. Since the Super Bowl the Ravens have lost a Hall of Fame linebacker to retirement (Ray Lewis), traded their leading receiver in catches and yards for a sixth round pick (Anquan Boldin), released their leading tackler (Bernard Pollard), Lost a Hall of Fame safety and both of their interception leaders to free agency (Ed Reed and Cary Williams each had 4), lost their sack leader to free agency (Paul Kruger) and another effective linebacker (Dannell Ellerbe). To replace this production the Ravens have added DL Marcus Spears and DE Chris Canty.

I have never seen a championship team dismantled so quickly. We knew Ray Lewis was gone and there were going to be some salary cap casualties, but I didn't expect this mass exodus so recently after winning a Super Bowl. I can't see how they're going to replace all that talent with what's left of free agency and the draft and be a contender next year. It sounds weird to say it, but with all the talent that Pittsburgh and Baltimore have lost recently I like the Bengals to win the AFC North next season.

Ravens Dramatically Overpay Joe Flacco

When Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco signs his six-year, $120.6 million contract today, $52 million of that is guaranteed, according to a report in USA Today. The Super Bowl MVP will receive $51 million over the first two years of the deal and $62 million over the first three years. 

It's a cap-friendly deal for the first two years, according to Sports Illustrated. Flacco will count $6.8 million against the Ravens' $123 million salary cap this year. That means Flacco takes up 5.5 percent of the cap for the upcoming season. Four other Ravens (Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Anquan Boldin and Marshal Yanda) all will have bigger cap numbers in 2013. 

Flacco's cap number makes a modest jump to $14.8 million in 2014. Where it gets tricky for the Ravens is in the fourth year of the contract, according to Peter King of SI. Flacco's cap number will balloon to $29 million. King estimates that will account for 22 percent of the cap in 2016. 

So, based on those figures, Flacco will make $62 million over the first three years (an average of $20.6 million) and will force the Ravens to rework his deal in 2016. And with Flacco being 31 at that point, which is still a prime age for a quarterback, don't expect him to accept a Tom Brady-like deal.

I believe this makes Joe Flacco the highest paid player in the NFL...I'm just gonna allow some time to let that sink in...
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First, I want to give some credit where credit is due. Joe Flacco has been a relatively consistent game manager with the ability to throw the deep ball on occasion. When the playoffs started he really elevated his game as they went through a brutal path to the Lombardi Trophy by beating Denver and New England on the road and eventually the Niners in the Super Bowl. As quick as I was to liken him to former Ravens Quarterback Trent Dilfer, it's not really a fair comparison. The Ravens had a good defense this season and they also stepped up their game for the playoffs, but the Baltimore Ravens defense that carried Trent Dilfer to the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XXXV was on a completely different level. The 7 total points the Giants scored in that Super Bowl came as a result of a kickoff return touchdown.

With all that said, this is still a gross overpayment for a quarterback who has been fairly mediocre for the bulk of his career. Even this most recent regular season his numbers were mediocre at best. I'm a fan of the Total QBR metric as a way to evaluate quarterbacks, in this category he finished 25th, just below Jake Locker and above Michael Vick. In 2011 he finished 14th between Jay Cutler and Eli Manning. In his whole career he's never managed to crack the top 10. Have you ever heard anybody seriously discuss him as a potential league MVP candidate?

It's also not as though Flacco hasn't had pieces around him. Ray Rice provides a very legitimate threat on the ground to keep the defense honest and open up opportunities for Flacco. Anquan Boldin, Torrey Smith and Dennis Pitta have proven to be good receiving targets. The Ravens defense is consistently one of the best in the NFL.

This is probably going to get overlooked by Ravens fans as they're still basking in the glow of their recent Super Bowl win and apparently it's going to be a few years before this deal turns into a really nasty cap hit, but they should hate this deal. They paid top dollar for a mediocre quarterback and it's going to really handcuff them in terms of their ability to build through free agency when his cap number explodes.

Thoughts On Passed Couple Of Days

So Kansas City gave the 49ers a 2nd round pick (basically a first) and some conditional mid round pick for benched QB Alex Smith.

What a dumb play by Andy Reid and the Chiefs, Yes, Matt Cassel is awful, but is Alex Smith the answer for anything? I love how people dismiss Alex Smith's shitty career over one good play off game and a couple games this year. Newsflash, Alex Smith still sucks and will continue to suck in Kansas City. I would much rather take a shot at drafting potentially Geno Smith, EJ Manuel, Tyler Wilson, Nassib, etc than be stuck with a "game manager" for my franchise quarterback.

The injury ended his career in SF, but the truth is, John Harbaugh benched him because he knew Alex Smith can only bring you so far. Kaepernick was clearly the better QB and every one knew that.

To Alex's credit, he handled that whole situation extremely gracefully, but being a nice guy doesn't win you Superbowls, see: Roethlisberger, Ben.

My prediction now is that SF will make a big push to get Derrell Revis, they have 14 picks this year and a ton of cap room since everyone on the team is still pretty young. If the 49ers add Revis, their defense will be scary good.


Next is the Brady Extension

Tom Brady signed a really team friendly deal that will guarantee him around 14ish million dollars a year which is clearly below market value.

I think this is awesome on Brady's part, although I am sure we will hear some back door deals in the up coming year. It's cool that he did this because now the Pats can lock up Welker for 3 years(which I'm sure was a pre negotiated thing when he took this deal)and maybe a Mike Wallace. The best thing about this is that this will make Joe Flacco look like such an asshole during his negotiations with Baltimore. With Brady and with Ben negotiating his contract where he will make minimum salary this year, this will just all make fans turn on Flacco. Flacco won a SB, big deal, he still sucks.

I'm Still Not Going To Take Joe Flacco Seriously

Flacco is going to be a huge debate going forward as his contract approaches and how we love to throw around the word "elite" to anyone who has a strong arm.

I see Flacco twice a year as a Steeler fan and I have never been impressed by him. He just doesn't do much for me, he disappeared in the 2nd half last night and people are building him up as if he Tom Brady or Joe Montana. Joe Flacco is closer to Trent Dilfer than to Tom Brady. Flacco's WRs constantly make up for his "go for it" way of doing things, you see Boldin jumping over people and fighting for the ball, you have see Torrey Smith using his athleticism and even Jacoby Jones had to stop and wait for that TD pass he caught.

Joe Flacco had an incredible post season run, but he never does anything during the season that wow'd me.

Joe Flacco is nothing special and I hate the he will be paid 20 million dollars a year.

34 Ravens, 31 49ers

After a hot start and being able to hold off the 49ers with a little help from the refs, the Baltimore Ravens are your Superbowl champions.

What looked like was going to be an absolute shellacking by Baltimore, actually turned into a really heart pounding game, where the 49ers had 1st and goal on the Ravens 8 with 2 minutes left in the game and all the momentum was on their side. before I get to the blown pass interference call, I just want to say the Jim Harbaugh's playcalling in the first half was atrocious, he was too safe with the ball, didn't put the ball in Kaerpernicks hands nearly enough, and I think he really blew these last 4 offensive playcalls were not correct. They were safe and didn't weren't in the endzone. I would at least threw it in the endzone every play or would have got Colin to run for the TD, the 4th down fade was also perplexing at the end.

Now with the lack of calls, there were two plays where it was absolute evident. 1st was the forementioned fade, corner back Jimmy Smith had his 2 arms around Michael Crabtree which was flagrantly a call and there was no call. I don't know how or why the refs didn't call that play but I never have seen such an obvious call not being called. It should have been 1st down at the 1 with a minute and half to go rather than a turnover on downs. On the flip side, the Baltimore Ravens got a same type of pass interference during a long drive. The second call is the missed holding call on the safety, offensive players are trained to hold when it comes to taking a safety, but the lack of call on Anthony Dixon cost the 49ers some seconds, I know it would have been a long shot but still.

The next thing is the power outage, what a weird thing to have happen. I don't think it's as big of a deal when it comes to momentum as people are making it out to be. I know the Ravens were outscored 25 to 6 after it, but I think that has more to do with the SF gameplan than the power outage. And that 25 to 6 disparity is exactly the reason why I think Jacoby Jones should have won the MVP over Joe Flacco. Flacco threw for 287 yards and 3 TDs, but disappeared in the whole second half. Jacoby Jones TD was the reason the Ravens won it. Not Joe Flacco.

Either way, it was a great Superbowl, I am glad Ray Lewis got to ride off into the sunset like Jerome Bettis.

And Beyonce killed it at halftime.