2013 Offseason Update, Week 15

The 'Patriot Killer' is now a member of the Tennessee Titans and has
chosen not to attend the Raven's White House visit in June.
Photo credit to IBN Sports Wrap.

There were a few interesting pieces of news this week. In addition, a friend of mine has been arguing with me that Joe Flacco is an elite quarterback due to his recent Super Bowl MVP award. So I’d like to go over my top current NFL quarterbacks and cover why I don’t consider Flacco one of the NFL’s elite just yet.

Bernard Pollard to Boycott Ravens’ White House Visit

When the Ravens visit the White House as Super Bowl champions this June, Bernard Pollard will not be with them. The safety was released by Baltimore in March and is now with the Titans on a one-year deal.

Some think Pollard is being childish, holding a grudge, and that he will regret this decision when he is retired from the NFL, especially if he fails to win a Super Bowl with another team. But I respectfully disagree. I would not want to carry the memory of visiting the White House with my former teammates and the team executives who released me so soon after helping them win it all.

Freeney, Cribbs Land on West Coast

Josh Cribbs has been in the NFL since 2005, Freeney since ’02, and both have known only one team during their careers.

In eight years with the Browns, Josh Cribbs has made three Pro Bowl rosters and was named to the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team. He is also tied with Leon Washington for the most kickoff return touchdowns in NFL history with eight. He signed a one-year deal with the Oakland Raiders on Wednesday.

Dwight Freeney is entering his 12^th year in the NFL after spending the first 11 in Indianapolis. He was a major part of a strong defensive unit that helped the Colts win Super Bowl XLI and was a part of their AFC Championship in 2009. A 7-time Pro Bowler and the Colts’ all-time sacks leader, Freeney was a part of the NFL’s 2000s All-Decade Team with Josh Cribbs. He agreed in principle to a two-year deal with the Chargers on Saturday.

NFL’s Top Quarterbacks

At any given time, there can be several elite active quarterbacks in the NFL. There have also been times when there were no elite active quarterbacks. Right now, I see four of them.

1) Aaron Rodgers

2) Peyton Manning

3) Drew Brees

4) Tom Brady

I also see two quarterbacks who have shown flashes of brilliance but who have minor inconsistencies keeping them from being truly elite.

5) Matt Ryan

6) Eli Manning

Then I see a few more quarterbacks who could get there but have either been severely too inconsistent or are just too young to be considered in that group so soon.

7) Joe Flacco

8) Tony Romo

T-9) Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick

My Take on Joe Flacco’s ‘Elite-ness’

Now, before the Flacco lovers rip my list to shreds, let me first say that I was more generous to Joe than NFL.com, who this week ranked him the 13^th best quarterback in the NFL, behind Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, RGIII, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson and even Cam Newton. They put Flacco in a group of ‘Solid Dudes’ with Tony Romo, Matt Stafford and Jay Cutler.

Now, the real question you probably want answered is: why do I rank Matt Ryan and Eli Manning not only ahead of Flacco, but far enough ahead that they deserve their own group in which I do not include Flacco?

Well, in Eli’s case, he has shown consistent growth over his career. He had a solid, if under-reported, season in 2007 helping his team to a wild-card birth and a Super Bowl victory over the 18-0 New England Patriots. He was a big part in the Giants constantly getting better over the course of that season. He continued his growth until he had a truly elite season in 2011. Last year was the first time in his career that he took a step back from his previous accomplishments. For that, I do not consider him elite, but he could join that group with another strong season or two and more consistency afterwards. Remember that Manning had a much better season than Joe Flacco did during the Giants’ 2011 Super Bowl run.

Matt Ryan has been one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks since his sophomore season, consistently putting up great regular season numbers. He would have been the league MVP last year if it wasn’t for his 5-INT game against the Cardinals. In fact, in just about every way except for passing yards, I think Matt Ryan is a better quarterback than Drew Brees and Tom Brady. The thing holding him back is a very poor game or two every regular season and the postseason troubles. Granted, most of their postseason failure has been more due to poor game planning than due to Ryan – with the one exception being their 24-2 loss to New York in 2011 – but until he clearly gets over that hump, it will be difficult to make a strong argument for him being elite.

Now, what about Joe Flacco? He’s won a playoff game every year of his career, the first quarterback to do so through five seasons in the league. He just won Super Bowl MVP – though I do call your attention to the fact that other non-elites like Jim Plunkett, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien have also won that award – and threw for 11 TDs and no INTs during the postseason, leading the Ravens past the Colts, Broncos, Patriots and 49ers. So why in the world don’t I consider him elite?!

It takes more than 4 spectacular postseason games to make you elite. “But it’s the playoffs,” you might say. “They’re the most important games.” Not so. If you don’t play well in the regular season, you generally don’t make the playoffs. Based on his playoff numbers, he should have been able to throw for 44 touchdowns during the regular season. He threw just 22. He played two terrible games against the Steelers when Big Ben wasn’t even playing. The only truly elite game he played during the 2012 regular season was in Week 1 against the Bengals – you could make an argument for the Raiders game, but it’s the Raiders, they don’t count.

So Matt Ryan had one non-elite game in 2012, Joe Flacco has one actually-elite game in 2012. It’s not even close right now, in my opinion. That doesn’t mean that Flacco couldn’t rip off a season for the ages in 2013. If he does so, I’ll concede that he is an elite quarterback. But that won’t mean that he was elite before 2013 began. He’s just not there yet. Joe Montana wasn’t elite yet when he won his first Super Bowl MVP in 1982. So stop rushing the process Flacco Faithful.

2013 Offseason Update, Week 7

A member of the Cleveland Browns since 1999, Phil Dawson went to
his second Pro Bowl in 2012 and is currently rated as the NFL's
7th most accurate kicker. Photo credit to SB Nation.

The NFL got very quiet over the weekend, just in time for everyone to turn their attention to March Madness. There was plenty of news in the first half of Week 7 though, so let’s get to it.

Major Additions

Most of the big additions this week came in the AFC. The lone exception was Phil Dawson signing with the 49ers. David Akers struggled mightily in 2012, just a year removed from a historic season in which he set the NFL record for field goals converted in a season. It just goes to show how short a kicker’s career is once he starts missing.

Tennessee nabbed a former Ravens in Bernard Pollard, but the bigger addition in my mind is Ryan Fitzpatrick. He will not be taking Jake Locker’s job, but he will provide competition. Locker progressed rather nicely in his second season but with Matt Hasselbeck out, the Titans would like to speed up the process.

Former Raven Ed Reed is headed to Houston. He visited the Texans last week but when he left without a deal we weren’t sure where he was headed next. Turns out they just needed to talk money and contract length.

With all these Ravens players leaving, it is nice that Baltimore finally got some good news Sunday afternoon when Elvis Dumervil signed with them. This comes a week after he signed a contract with the Denver Broncos that was voided because the document arrived via fax after the league’s deadline.

Rule Changes

The Tuck Rule is gone. Praise the Lord, right? It only came about a decade late. One rule was put into place, however, that most people are not too happy about.

The League’s new Crown-of-the-Helmet rule states that any player three or more yards downfield may not deliver a blow with the crown of his helmet. It isn’t a popular new rule, and I myself am not looking forward to a new slew of fines to come this season because of the change. However, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh made an excellent point when he said, “Anybody that has played the game knows that when you’re going in on a higher hit you tackle with your eyes up. You see what you hit.”

We Have Football!

Well, not quite. But at least we know when we will have football again. The Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins will meet in Canton on August 4 for the NFL’s annual Hall of Fame Game, which kicks off the preseason.

The game will be played the day after the 2013 Hall of Fame Induction is held. This year’s class includes former greats such as Larry Allen and Jonathan Ogden. Bill Parcells will be inducted in his second year on the ballot and Cris Carter will also be inducted after being slighted for several years.

Opening On the Road

The Super Bowl victor traditional hosts the NFL’s Kickoff Game on the Thursday (or Wednesday) following preseason to officially begin the regular season. A scheduling conflict with the Baltimore Orioles, who share a parking lot with the Ravens, will force the city’s NFL franchise to open their season on the road. There is no word yet on which team they will visit. The New England Patriots believed they will play the Ravens in Baltimore but perhaps the NFL will look kindly on Baltimore and not force them to visit such a difficult opponent in their first game of the season.

If I’m missing anything important, or if you just want to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my blog’s Facebook page or my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

Super Bowl XLVII: Baltimore Ravens

Super Bowl Sunday Countdown: 4 Days

In Ray Lewis's final game, the Ravens look to win their second Lombardi Trophy
and hand the 49ers their first Super Bowl loss. Photo credit to NFL Network.

It would be too easy to just copy what I wrote yesterday about the 49ers and apply it to the Ravens. It would be easy to say that this was a two-year, a three-year, a five-year process that Baltimore’s franchise has worked through to this point. After all, they went to the AFC Championship last season and they are the only team in the NFL that has made the postseason each of the past five years.

But it is for that very reason that I say it has not been a five years process. Something had to have happened to get over the hump, to take this team to that next level that has eluded them since John Harbaugh and Joe Flacco came to Baltimore.

The Ravens, in my mind, are Ray Lewis’s team without a doubt. The most faithful Ravens fans who think they know their team inside and out while say that it wasn’t just Ray who sparked this postseason run. Remember that Bernard Pollard also returned from injury in that wild-card game against the Colts.

But I still point to the teams they played during the Regular Season. Ray Lewis played in Baltimore’s first six games, in which they went 5-1. They should have gone 6-0 – yes, I’m still bitter against the replacement refs for that Week 2 game, even though I didn’t really have much interested invested in it.

The first week that Lewis did not play, the Ravens got pummeled by the Texans, 43-13. They had a bye week and then won four straight, but the only semi-impressive win was their 55-20 victory over Oakland, which was a statement made by their offense. It wasn’t an impressive display by their defense considering nobody else scored 20 against them during that winning streak.

Then they lost four of their last five. Two, and maybe three, of those games were matchups they should have won. Not having Ray Lewis made it very difficult for Baltimore to do what they needed on defense. Not only is Ray Lewis an emotional leader, he is still one of the best middle linebackers in the NFL on a physical level.

Baltimore has given up fewer than two touchdowns in five of Ray Lewis’s nine games played this season. Without Ray, they’ve achieved that feat three times in ten games, and in one of those games they still gave up five field goals.

I look forward to finding out what the Ravens look like without Ray Lewis next season. My outlook isn’t as bright as many Ravens fans’ outlooks. But one thing is for sure, with Ray Lewis in at middle linebacker, this team has a great shot at winning the Super Bowl on Sunday.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Joe Flacco has found his mojo this postseason. Eight touchdown passes and no interceptions over three games is always a formula for success.

Tomorrow I will recap some of the things that caught my attention during Media Day – not the news of Ray Lewis possibly using Deer Antler Spray; I’ll wait for more info to come out before I address that. Stay tuned all week, as I’ll have a new post every day and my official prediction on Sunday by noon. For links to blog posts as they’re published, ‘like’ my blog’s Facebook page and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.