When the Baltimore Ravens traded up into the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft to select Lamar Jackson, it was pretty clear what that meant for Joe Flacco and his future with the team.
Flacco has four years left on his contract, but the team has a potential out after next season, and a franchise doesn't draft a quarterback in the first round with the thoughts of letting him sit behind someone for three or four years. Flacco hasn't made any public comments about his thoughts on the draft pick, but in Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback article on Sports Illustrated, he said Flacco has gotten the message.
• Joe Flacco’s gotten the message. That’s what I hear. And he’s too smart not to have gotten it. Flacco, 33, understands the trade-up pick of Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson means the Ravens have noticed his sub-.500 record and 82.4 passer rating in the past three years, regardless how much is his fault. The quarterback always takes major blame when an offense is lousy, and Baltimore’s has been bad—29th, 12th and 29th in passing yards in the past three seasons. What’s more, the Ravens are a boring offense. They excite no one. They’re inefficient—and you can’t blame only Flacco, because the receiving group has been consistently disappointing too. When I saw this pick, I said I bet this is about more than dissatisfaction with Flacco. It’s about making the team exciting again in a market that has grown blasé, and throwing some change-ups with an electric quarterback. Flacco will get the first shot, and he may well play well enough to beat back Jackson. We’ll see.
For Flacco, he had that one magical run that led the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory, but he hasn't lived up to the expectations of his contract since then.
It will be interesting to see how long Flacco can hold on to the starting quarterback position with the Ravens, but it seems even he now knows it might not be for too much longer.
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