Remember When: Terrell Suggs said Troy Smith should start over Flacco
It was 2008, and although the Ravens had drafted Joe Flacco in the first round of the draft, not everybody thought he should beat out Troy Smith.
Ever since Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl two seasons ago with one of the best four-game postseason runs by a quarterback that you'll ever see, the Ravens signal-caller has struggled quite badly.
Witness his stat line from the 17 starts since Baltimore won the NFL title.
| Year | Age | G | GS | QBrec | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sk | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 28 | 16 | 16 | 8-8-0 | 362 | 614 | 59.0 | 3912 | 19 | 22 | 6.4 | 10.8 | 244.5 | 73.1 | 48 |
| 2014 | 29 | 1 | 1 | 0-1-0 | 35 | 62 | 56.5 | 345 | 1 | 1 | 5.6 | 9.9 | 345.0 | 71.0 | 3 |
| Career | 97 | 97 | 62-35-0 | 1904 | 3165 | 60.2 | 21890 | 122 | 79 | 6.9 | 11.5 | 225.7 | 83.5 | 225 |
Not great for a guy who signed a six-year $120.6 million contract soon after his Super Bowl triumph.
Now, as the Ravens prepare to even their 2014 record with a Thursday night showdown vs. the Steelers on CBS, it's a good time to look back to 2008 and at what at least one member of the squad thought about the team's future with Flacco in charge.
Terrell Suggs, the microphone is yours.
"Right now, I think [Flacco is] all right," Suggs told the 2 Live Stews radio show, via the Baltimore Sun. "But like I said, in the end, Troy should be the starter [because he's] the better man for the job."
The Troy to whom Suggs is referring is Troy Smith. And with hindsight, obviously, that statement is ludicrous and seriously gives doubt on the idea that Suggs would ever have success as a scout (my own statement, of course, is slightly hyperbolic).
But let's take a look at why Suggs would say such a thing in October 2008.
For one, Smith was a former Heisman trophy winner at Ohio State. Flacco, on the other hand, played at the University of Delaware, an FCS school, after he got tired of standing on the sidelines of Pitt as Tyler Palko's backup.
For two, Smith was SUPPOSED to start the season as the Ravens No. 1 quarterback, but he missed much of the preseason with a tonsil infection.
Here's the reality, though: Smith was a fifth-round pick in the 2007 draft, while Flacco was selected No. 18 overall in 2008. Smith had started only twice his rookie year, looking decent but not great in both, so it's not like he had much more experience than Flacco.
Either way, Smith lost his supposed starting job because of his tonsillitis, while backup quarterback Kyle Boller suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, leaving the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart, Flacco, as the starter.
And he looked subpar at first, failing to break the 250-yard mark in his first six games while throwing just two touchdowns against seven interceptions. Flacco did win his first two contests, but after six starts, the Ravens were 3-3 at the time. That's when Suggs made his declaration.
"He started out hot," Suggs told the radio station. "We played two teams who were in the bottom of the league in defense [the Browns and Bengals]. So, everybody was going all crazy about him."
Later, Suggs backtracked saying he only meant that both Flacco and Smith should be playing with different packages set up for each of them. But that obviously didn't happen. Nor should it have.
The end result: Flacco, while he's struggled since then, still is one of the singular reasons the Ravens have a Super Bowl championship to their credit. He also has a ton of money in the bank. Meanwhile, Smith stayed in Baltimore through the 2009 season before departing for the 49ers where he started six games in 2010 (he actually performed admirably during his time in San Francisco).
But that's the last we've seen of him in this country, and last month, he was benched as the starter for the CFL's Montreal Allouettes.
Turns out it was a good thing Suggs wasn't in charge of the Ravens player personnel department in 2008.
