Is Joe Flacco elite?
That question has followed him long enough to become one of the first things associated with the Ravens quarterback. It’s also the first thing that came to mind when owner Steve Bisciotti talked about the quarterback during a press conference on Tuesday. After a season that saw Flacco throw a career-high 672 passes, Bisciotti said he thinks the team needs more from the quarterback.
“We need to get more out of Joe. He would agree with me,” Bisciotti said.
Flacco posted the highest passing yards and completion percentage of his career in 2016, but he also turned the ball over 18 times and had the second-lowest net yards per attempt of his time in Baltimore. That left him ranked No. 24 in terms of passer rating and Bisciotti isn’t the only person from the talking about the need to improve.
In his own season-ending press conference, Ravens coach John Harbaugh noted that Flacco is being paid at the top level for quarterbacks and that the Ravens “need to get him playing at that level” if they are going to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Harbaugh also talked about the need to boost the run game, but it seems clear that the Ravens feel their own route back to elite status requires that kind of performance from their quarterback.
