After a pair of joint practices this week, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is convinced that Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco deserves to be labeled an elite NFL quarterback.
“I think he’s one of the elite quarterbacks in this league,” Kelly told reporters on Thursday. “He’s tough to break down and tough to bring down. He’s also just so poised when he plays back there. You talk about when guys really get it, the game is slowed down for them. He’s such a good decision maker. He’s an unbelievable clutch player.
“You look at him in all the situations that he’s been in, he always just seems to have poise, and nothing seems to rattle him,” Kelly continued. “I had the opportunity when I was [the offensive coordinator] at New Hampshire, we played against him when he was at Delaware, so I knew how good Joe was going to be a long time ago.”
Like most fans, analysts, players and coaches alike, we disagree with Kelly’s assessment that Flacco is an elite quarterback. The former No. 19 overall pick has yet to throw for 4,000 yards in a single season. And despite often ranking middle-of-the-pack in pass attempts, his annual completion rate is below average among starting NFL quarterbacks.
Nevertheless, elite QBs don’t grow on trees, and teams obviously don’t have to have one in order to reach the Super Bowl and hoist the Lombardi Trophy, as long as they’re well-coached and stacked with talent on defense.
Like roughly half the teams in the league, the Ravens are equipped with an established franchise quarterback, and like most of those team’s starting QBs, Flacco is cool as a cucumber under pressure, takes care of the football and has the talent to put his team in a position to win nearly every single week.
His 72-40 record (.642) as a starter (10-5 in the playoffs), 148:90 touchdown-to-interception ratio (25:10 in the playoffs) are also quite impressive. And with 14 comeback wins and 21 game-winning drives on his résumé, Flacco is clearly among the more clutch quarterbacks in the NFL today.
He’ll have plenty of challenges to overcome this season as he operates with an unproven receiving corps led by 36-year-old Steve Smith, rookie Breshad Perriman, third-year pros Kamar Aiken and Marlon Brown, 2014 UDFAs Jeremy Butler and Aldrick Robinson and 2014 seventh rounder Michael Campanaro.
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