Joe Flacco had a postseason for the ages, throwing 11 touchdown passes and zero interceptions (becoming only the third quarterback to do so) and winning the Super Bowl while garnering the game's MVP award. He will now be paid many millions of dollars by the Ravens.
We think, anyway -- there's theoretically a chance he's paid by someone else. How could this happen?
Two ways. One, the Ravens don't sign Flacco to an extension or use the franchise tag on him, allowing their quarterback to waltz into free agency. This won't happen. Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome already said as much.
The other option is a little more complicated, and it's something that was (somewhat) surprisingly broached by SI.com's Peter King on Monday. It also involves a nonexclusive franchise tag.
See, if the Ravens give Flacco the exclusive franchise tag, they lock him up. Period. No one else can negotiate with him. But they would also be on the hook for just north of $20 million guaranteed in that situation.
If Baltimore gives Flacco the nonexclusive franchise tender, they'll owe him just $14.5 million guaranteed (and lower the baseline for long-term contract negotiations). But that would leave Flacco open to getting poached by another team. Anyone willing to give up their 2013 and 2014 first-round picks could sign Flacco to an offer sheet and if the Ravens declined to match said sheet, that team would pick up the 28-year-old quarterback.
King throws out the Browns, Bills and Cardinals as three teams that could make a run at Flacco if he becomes semi-available. Cleveland and Buffalo, in particular, are well south of the salary cap at this point.
Clearly all of these teams would love to add Flacco to their roster. And clearly the Ravens would like to keep Flacco.
The question is whether or not Newsome would be willing to gamble on utilizing a pair of future first-round picks (all those picks would be in the top 10 in 2013) to remain competitive while giving up his franchise quarterback.
Teams do not give up franchise quarterbacks, so this move would be bold. It would also be beyond fascinating to see how things worked out for the two franchises involved in this hypothetical. (The Browns stealing Flacco from a division rival as well as the franchise formerly known as the Browns and then having to play that rival twice a year would be all kinds of awesome.)
I'd say the odds on it going down are slim. King believes Newsome and Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti implied a willingness to let Flacco walk (or something along those lines) in their end-of-season presser. I didn't see it that way, especially with Newsome affirming Flacco would return, but they did promise to do things differently than they did after winning the title in 2001 and handing out a bunch of restructured contracts to veterans.
Here's the thing, though. Newsome knows he doesn't win the Lombardi Trophy in 2012-13 without Flacco. The Ravens don't come even close to winning it, in fact. It's one thing to let someone like Paul Kruger -- a talented pass rusher who really exploded down the stretch -- go.
It's a different thing to let your franchise quarterback walk in free agency. And it's impossible to fathom Newsome would do so, even if the cost to locking down Flacco is fairly prohibitive.
