Flacco's New Contract Discussion

patman · Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 936 Location: Tiverton RI

Flacco is a top 10 qb and has only played for 4 years. His skill set demands at least 6 years and 100 mill with 35mill in a SB. To compare what Schaub made as a 31 YO with an injury history and to equate that with Flacco is unreasonable. The only think the Ravens could do is tag him for a year at almost 17 mill.

Lewis and Reed's salary will be off the books soon and that will free up some long range money.

wackywabbit · Joined: 20 Dec 2009 Posts: 3855

Cap Space shouldn't be a problem. Not only do Ray Lewis and Ed Reed's contracts expire, but Haloti Ngata gets paid $40 million of his $61 million contract in the first two years (this year and last year), so from this year to next year, there should be 8 figures of cap space created from that alone.

Flaccomania · Joined: 12 Aug 2008 Posts: 16550 Location: Parkville, MD

I'm gonna predict a "Ravens" type contract -- lower than expected in terms of average yearly salary, but higher on guaranteed money (like Rice's deal).

I'm gonna go with 6 years, $92m ($15.3m/year), with $46m guaranteed. Includes a $30m signing bonus, and first 2 years salaries guaranteed. Breakdown as such:

2013: $8m salary, $5m SB
2014: $8m salary, $5m SB
2015: $9m salary, $5m SB
2016: $10m salary, $5m SB
2017: $13m salary, $5m SB
2018: $14m salary, $5m SB

---

How this ranks in terms of average salary (keep in mind when some of these guys signed -- Rodgers, Brady, Ben, etc all signed a few years ago, so their prices are a bit lower than market currently):

Brees - $20m
P. Manning - $19.2m
Vick - $16.7m
Brady - $15.7m
Flacco - $15.3m
E. Manning - $15.3m
Rivers - $14m
Ben - $12.75m
Romo - $11.2m
Rodgers - $10.8m
Cutler - $10m

How he ranks in terms of guaranteed money:

Brady - $48.5m
Flacco - $46m
Brees - $40m
Rivers - $38.15m
E. Manning - $35m
Ben - $33.2m
Vick - $32.5m
Romo - $30m
Cutler - $20m
Rodgers - $20m
P. Manning - $18m

--

So, while Flacco's yearly salary would currently rank about 5th, Rodgers is sure to jump him soon enough, likely Cutler as well, maybe Ben in a year or two, as well as Stafford. So while he'd be pretty high up upon signing, he'll slowly climb down the ladder as the others have which would pit us in a good position compared to many others. As well, the guranteed money would rank him 2nd which is a great bargaining chip.
_________________

Why not Michael Jordan?

sp6488 · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 6230 Location: MD

yea, I can see that. I think the Ravens do give a lot of 'fair' contracts in the sense that it's generally not the highest per-year number, but there's probably more 'real' money in there. Additionally, they don't end up puching a ton of money around to eek under the cap. I know some posters have complained about the FO not redoing deals all of the time like the Jets, but I actually think it speaks to our FO's ability to plan for future years, sign players to deals that work for them and for us, and our ability to balance present day success with building for the future.

I still think Flacco is going to be a $100M man. Seems to have a good head on his shoulders. He supposedly has much of his first contract money saved up still (banking that local pizza hut money, lol) and I don't know if he really would care about the "respect" angle of his deal. But I know I'd want to clear that 100M plateu to prove to everyone that laughed at me I'm the real deal.
_________________

diamondbull424 · Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 10018 Location: Baltimore, MD

I think first off we have to determine what the likely length of the contract for Flacco is going to be. And if we look at the history of the Ravens resigning their big name star players, you see six years tends to be the mode average of the length of contracts we hand out:

Ray Rice- 5 year deal
Lardarius Webb- 6 year extension
Haloti Ngata- 5 year deal
Terrell Suggs- 6 year deal
Ray Lewis- 7 year deal
Ed Reed- 6 year deal
Johnathan Ogden- 6 year extension

Then you have to consider the commitment that the Steelers made to divisional probowl QB, Big Ben, of eight years when he was a young successful QB. The way I see it, Flacco is young and proven to be a durable strong armed option that is ascending. The guys with big time arm strength tend to age well FTMP... Manning, Favre, heck even Carson Palmer still has his arm strength. So I'd look towards the Ravens giving Flacco a contract that he can walk away from the game with. 35 years old could be enough to call it quits. An extension would kick in for 2013... when Flacco is 28. So I'd say a seven year deal for Flacco is a strong possibility.

Now, considering the recent news that the Ravens offered $100m to Flacco over five years and he declined... I'm going to take that as agent releasing info to the press, since the Ravens usually keep things tight lipped. So assuming Flacco wants $20m a year (highest paid QB)... and assuming the Ravens probably start negotiations at a fair value of $12.7m (highest paid player on team)... halfway point in negotiations tell us $16.35m. Add in the additional leverage, Flacco's agent probably asks for more guaranteed money. Ravens probably negotiates slightly under mid-point. So all this considered, my gut tells me that Flacco signs:

FlaccoForever · Joined: 12 Jul 2011 Posts: 280