Flacco's fault?

[beats2rock]

I would like to preface this by saying I'm not writing this trying to troll anyone's team but I heard on talk radio today that Joe Flacco is a scumbag for ignoring Lamar Jackson and not agreeing to help him and that its his fault the Ravens drafted a QB because he stinks and he's the reason they haven't had success lately. Is it or is the blame more deserving to another individual/individuals?

[Malfatron]

thanks joe flacco

[mission27]

In large part yes.  He's a below average QB and they have come pretty close a few times.  With an above average QB, they'd be a perennial playoff team imo.

[DingoLadd]

2013 was the great roster purge in which the Ravens reset the roster.

2014 was flacco's best season short of his playoff one. 

2015 literally everything fell apart including his knee ligaments.

2016 He was mostly dreadful but ehhh one year off a torn acl so.

2017 Back injury and a terrible start ruined the season, winning record and one game out of playoff contention so eh.

Id say it's on the front office for not putting together an elite offense or defense to carry the team. 

 

[DutchFalcon]

#ThanksJoeFlacco

Tbh I feel bad for Lamar Jackson. He ended up on a team with Flacco and RG3. Flacco to me is impossible to read. I really, really doubt he'll care enough to take a rook under his wing. I don't even know if extra competition will feed his competativeness. He could end up Cutlering next season harder then Cutler ever did.

Then you have RGKnee who might see a chance to grab a starting role or might be jaded by the entire experience. I wonder what kind of advice he will give Jackson.

[Broncofan]

Flacco wasn't worth the 2nd contract.   If he doesn't win the SB, he doesn't sniff that kind of $.    

Even so, there's no way it's all on him.   That kind of contract makes it harder to contend - it doesn't make your team bad by himself.   So as usual, it's a little of "all of the above".

Given a SB win is no small feat, I think the fanbase will take it.  But they're probably also glad the Flacco era likely comes to an end after the season is done.

Flacco's not that different than most vet QB's who know they are on their way out.  I mean, Big Ben is saying just as much.  The difference is Big Ben hinted heavily at retirement - which then led PIT to start planning for the future.  Flacco's play necessitated this move, but it's not like Flacco said anything to make this happen.  So I sympathize with Flacco's situation a lot more than I do with Big Ben.

[Johnny Nix]

Just to throw this out there. Beyond an aging Steve Smith, Flacco has had little weapons to work with. We will see this year if it’s really him or the lack of weapons 

[RavensDefense3]

Both the FO and Flacco.

As much hate as he gets, flacco has had one of the worst supporting casts in the league since the SB. His #1 receivers were a 34 YO steve smith, a mike wallace coming off a 300 yard season, and torrey smith. And none of them played together at the same time. OL has been always been bad/injured.

I blame the FO for that, they went a little overboard to rebuild the defense.

[Soko]

It’s mostly Ozzie’s fault. The team was full of JAGs for years now. 

Even if you want to say it’s Flacco’s fault because of the contract, that’s Ozzie too.

[drd23]

As with most problems in life, the cause of the Ravens not reaching the heights of 2008-2012 (SB win, making 2 other AFCCGs) since then is multifactorial.

I'd say Harbaugh and the coaching staff deserve the largest share of the blame.  Harbaugh has persisted with poor performing coaches for far longer than they deserved.  Of all the coordinators since 2008, I think Cam Cameron in 2012 and Marc Trestman in 2016 might be the only ones that were fired.  He's frequently called for more aggressive defenses (particularly in the latter years of Dean Pees' reign as DC) yet never did anything when it never happened.  Players on defense have been played out of position to the  detriment of their development and the team's performance (Matt Elam played almost exclusively FS in his 2nd and 3rd seasons; Courtney Upshaw was a starting OLB; Jimmy Smith, a press corner since college, played mostly off-man coverage with a 7yd cushion until the last couple of years etc).  And his hiring of coaches was very nepotistic, even by NFL standards.  If a coach hadn't worked with/for him or his father, they almost certainly weren't going to be hired.  Plus since Ed Reed, Ray Lewis and Anquan Boldinleft after the SB win, the team has been lacking in on-field leadership (with the exception of Suggs and Steve Smith for the 2 years he was here) and this is thought to be due to Harbs not liking other big voices in the locker room.

Flacco would have the second biggest share of the blame.  Since the massive contract he received after the SB win, he's either under-performed relative to the contract, been injured or both.

[drd23]

13 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

It’s mostly Ozzie’s fault. The team was full of JAGs for years now. 

Even if you want to say it’s Flacco’s fault because of the contract, that’s Ozzie too.

If you're talking offensive skill positions, sure, but that's nothing new.  The WR corps has been one good vet and a bunch of nothing for 10+ years and that didn't stop them winning at least one play-off game for 5 consecutive years.

I'd strongly disagree that the team is full of JAGs when it comes to the offensive line, and much of the defense.

[beats2rock]

It does seem like whenever they have a good Oline player they end up getting paid by another team. Should Flacco have said "hey if you pay this guy to stay I'll take a paycut." have teams ever made deals with players like that?

[43M]

1 hour ago, johndeere1707 said:

Just to throw this out there. Beyond an aging Steve Smith, Flacco has had little weapons to work with. We will see this year if it’s really him or the lack of weapons 

I agree his weapons haven't been great, but I don't think Flacco would have ever been anything better than merely good even with really good weapons. He makes too many poor decisions and his accuracy can be very spotty. Again, not saying better weapons wouldn't help because they obviously would... But I don't think having great weapons would have made him a NOTABLY better quarterback.

[Johnny Nix]

26 minutes ago, FourThreeMafia said:

I agree his weapons haven't been great, but I don't think Flacco would have ever been anything better than merely good even with really good weapons. He makes too many poor decisions and his accuracy can be very spotty. Again, not saying better weapons wouldn't help because they obviously would... But I don't think having great weapons would have made him a NOTABLY better quarterback.

I have noticed over the years he’s become Captain Checkdown. I think it’s because no one ever got open for him. I agree that even if he had better weapons he wouldn’t be a top 10 QB. But I think we’d see him have better games here and there. 

[Ketchup]

They paid an average to below average QB elite QB money. That’s was always going to be a failure but at the time, The Ravens being fresh off a SB win and Flacco playing elite ball in that playoff run, the Ravens had little choice but to pony up. Perfect storm.