Is Joe Flacco an Elite Quarterback?

Before the 2012-2013 NFL season started Joe Flacco told us all that he thought he was the best quarterback in the NFL. Back when he said this I thought he was crazy and wouldn't even include him in my top 10. He just won a Super Bowl over the weekend and I still don't include him there.

Here is Flacco's actual quote, "I mean, I think I'm the best. I don't think I'm top five, I think I'm the best. I don't think I'd be very successful at my job if I didn't feel that way. I mean, c'mon? That's not really too tough of a question."

If a player is ever asked a question about what he thinks of his own play they are usually going to respond pretty favorably about themselves. If they don't actually think of themselves that highly then it doesn't look good for how others will portray them either and it questions their confidence.

So the reason I'm bringing this up today is because Flacco's agent is going around telling everyone that he thinks his client should be the highest paid quarterback in the NFL because he just won the Super Bowl and was named the game's Most Valuable Player. 

I would argue that he didn't even deserve the game's MVP. The MVP trophy in the Super Bowl goes to the quarterback of the winning team 75 percent of the time. It's basically a trophy that they just hand over to the winning QB unless that guy did nothing in the game at all. I think two of his offensive weapons were more deserving than he was because they were the ones making the big plays. Anquan Boldin was making some catches that you can't even give credit to Joe Flacco for throwing because it was all Boldin in some of them. He finished with six catches for 108 yards and one touchdown, and he completely tore the 49ers secondary apart. Jacoby Jones finished the game with two touchdowns, but it was his 108 yard kick return for a touchdown that was really the biggest play of the game. His other touchdown came on a 56 yard pass that Flacco really under-threw and he came back to. I actually voted for Boldin winning the game's MVP but it could have gone to either him or Jones in my opinion over Flacco in my opinion.

Now when you think this current Ravens team, who would you say was their best player on the team? Who would you say were the top five players on their team? If you had to ask me this question about who were most important and most valuable to them all season I don't even have Flacco in the top five. I'd put Ray Rice, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs & Haloti Ngata all ahead of him. Those five guys were more important to this team than he was. When Lewis retires, Reed ends up going to another team, and the Ravens probably lose either Boldin or Jones in the offseason I doubt this team makes the playoffs next year.

Merril Hoge made his case for the top five quarterbacks in the NFL right now and actually had Flacco ranked number 1. In my opinion Hoge's top five is awful and I'm starting to think the man has lost his mind and needs his much needed vacation now that the NFL season is finally over. Here's a clip of the video:



There are so many things wrong with Hoge's top five that I had to make my case for where these guys should all be ranked. The idea that he doesn't even have Drew Brees on the whole damn board drives me insane to go along with not including either of the Manning brothers in his top five.

Here's how I see the current state of quarterbacks in the NFL in order of who I think is the best right now at the position. These are the guys that right now I would want to be leading my team and Flacco isn't even in my top 10.

1. Aaron Rodgers
2. Peyton Manning
3. Tom Brady
4. Drew Brees
5. Eli Manning
6. Ben Roethlisberger
7. Matt Ryan
8. Andrew Luck
9. Robert Griffin III
10. Colin Kaepernick

I'm sorry to break this to Joe Flacco and his agent that is just trying to get rich, but the man isn't elite. Winning a Super Bowl doesn't just make you the best QB in the league. Trent Dilfer has one of those too for the same team Flacco plays on. Did it help Flacco's stock by winning it? It definitely helped him, but he just doesn't strike fear in any defense.