Same. Well not sucking his balls, but I defended him against people that said he sucked.

He totally changed my tune in this last month, dude is legit.

Just reaffirms my preference for big, physical pocket passers... he made several throws under very heavy pressure, thats what those kinds of QB's can give you.

The elite QB's were at home sitting on their asses watching Flacco and the Ravens win a Superbowl.

Based on this year, he's pretty darn good quarterback, but more along the lines of a Ken Stabler or Bert Jones. Good, and obviously good enough, but not a franchise quarterback. He doesn't even hold sway over a linebacker on the team.

If you list Eli as elite you have to list Flacco...

He's very much like Eli Manning.

He's fairly erratic and not always terribly accurate. That said, he's not scared to unleash the ball downfield and he doesn't spook easily.

Both the Ravens and Giants have done a good job of dealing with his occasional accuracy issues by hiding them behind a deep passing game. He's become a high risk/high reward, downfield passer and I think that's just a brilliant way to use a guy like that.

It's really what the Bucs should be doing with Josh Freeman and if the Jets had any weapons, they should at least try it with Sanchez. The guys with middling accuracy just cannot run a short passing game.

He's not a true 'franchise' QB in the sense that I don't think he's just going to go all Brady or Rodgers and make his entire team better - there are much much fewer of those in this league than most will admit. That said, I'd take him as my QB any day because he is absolutely a guy that can win for you (obviously) if put in the right situation.

EDIT: What Rausch said. They're the same guy.

If we are not already there, we are very near a point where the NFL regular season doesnt matter as much anymore.

Ravens were the 4th seed this year, Giants 4th seed last year, Packers 6th seed before that. Its become all about getting on a hot streak at the right time, and guys like Eli and Flacco tend to be very streaky.

Who cares if you lose a few games in Sept or October??

I think that Joe Flacco posses the skill-set necessary to be a franchise guy. I also think that he is often unfairly criticized. He didn't like that criticism much and stepped up...he responded, with a Superbowl win. He's a franchise man, in my opinion.

If you take an 8-8 team and put him at the helm, are they a SB winner? Can he make a 6-10 team a playoff team?

That's how I view a 'franchise' QB - a force multiplier that makes everyone else on his team better.

Flacco doesn't do that, IMO. He's not an accurate enough passer for long enough stretches for that. Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Peyton are guys that can throw 50 footballs and hit their target 48 times. They're smart decisionmakers that can run any offense they're given.

Flacco's not that level of guy. He's a very good quarterback and someone I would gladly have lead my team, but he's not to the level of the truly stellar, IMO.

This is true, but I'm actually starting to think thats about the level you need. Franchise QB doesnt' always equal elite Qb.

Brady Brees P. Manning (?) Rodgers are the only really elite guys in the league, then there is a whole other tier of guys. I'll take a guy in that second tear in a second.

You also dont know but that said second tier guy can't grow into the first tier.

Joe Flacco went to a 5-11 team and led them to a 11-5 record as a rookie...5 years later won the Super Bowl and was the game MVP.

Since he took over, he has the most wins (both regular and post season) of any NFL quarterback.

I'd say he's a franchiseqb.

Without question.

Franchise QB. Yeah, for sure.


Elite QB? I have a hard time saying yes on that one.

Without a ****ing doubt. I think people are just quibbling about elite vs franchise at this point.

Semantics

Either way, he's a guy you can build a team around. Which was the definition of franchise QB when I was growing up, not whether or not he could carry a shitty franchise by himself.