MMQB Review: Peter Is Bored and Decides Joe Flacco Will Be a Free Agent Edition

Peter King only brought up Brett Favre twice last week in MMQB, which shows some restraint from how much he would love to talk about Favre. Peter wrapped up the NFL season with stories from the Super Bowl and complained about his trip to New Orleans. Did you know that casinos don't resemble a church at 7am? Did you know the free coffee at a hotel tastes like water and isn't up to Peter's incredibly high standards? If you didn't then, you know these fun little factoids now. This week Peter talks about how if the Ravens don't love Joe Flacco enough (pay him enough because he's elite now, don't you know) then he could be gone in free agency, he still wants Cary Williams to hang for his crimes in the Super Bowl, and re-introduces us to the defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher hired as the Rams defensive coordinator until Fisher decided he was too smart to hire him, Rob Ryan.

Was it only me listening to Baltimore owner Steve Bisciotti and trusted GM Ozzie Newsome the other day, thinking they're going to throw the first big changeup into this offseason?

Yes, it probably was only you was listening to Steve Bisciotti and Ozzie Newsome the other day, thinking they were going to throw a changeup into the offseason. Mostly because you get paid to listen to these guys and then interpret what they are saying. This is how you get paid and otherwise you would just be a middle-aged man writing about football every week in a column read daily by 300-500 people. 

Listening to Bisciotti and Newsome, you'd be a fool to think it's not possible. Probable? No. But look at the tea leaves. The Ravens have until March 4 to sign or put a franchise tag on Flacco, whose rookie contract expired after his heroic postseason run. If they don't sign him to a contract by then, the Ravens have to decide whether to designate Flacco their franchise player or their exclusive-rights franchise player.

I'm not a huge fan of Joe Flacco, but it would be a huge mistake for the Ravens to let him go. Peter King is a pretty gullible sportswriter and he tends to believe things that owners, general managers and head coaches will tell him. In this case, I have to believe the Ravens aren't really going to let Joe Flacco go in free agency and they are just posturing right now in order to get Flacco to be more reasonable with his contract demands. Flacco is smart and knows he is in a good situation in an offense he knows and likes, so the Ravens are trying to posture in order to make it seem like they wouldn't be able to afford him if he demands too large of a contract. So yes, I believe Peter is swallowing hook, line, and sinker what the Ravens are wanting him to report. It's nice to have a gullible media member to help you in contract negotiations with your star quarterback.

Hey, maybe the Ravens are serious about not re-signing Flacco, but I think it is more likely the Ravens are making public comments like this is the direction they could go in an attempt to get the media to pick it up and report on it. It seems like a negotiation ploy to me.

It has been presumed that if the Ravens can't sign Flacco before the March 4 franchise-tagging deadline that they'd exercise the exclusive tag. That would mean committing a $20 million guaranteed salary -- with another $24 million due Flacco in 2014 if Baltimore had to exercise a tag again next year. Two years, $44 million ... significantly more than Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady make now. The regular franchise tag for quarterbacks, meanwhile, is $14.5 million.

It seems to me like it would be very, very likely the Ravens would put the franchise tag on Flacco if they can't reach a contract agreement with him. This allows them to match the offer to Flacco and if they can't match the offer then they get two first round draft picks when/if another team signs Flacco. It seems like the logical move for them. 

Bisciotti: "We've proven it two years in a row that we can kind of shock the world and disappoint our fans at the same time, by letting some of these guys go, but letting young guys fill in and then going out and getting good values on the free-agent market.''

I believe Peter is reading this incorrectly. Bisciotti is saying the Ravens aren't going to re-sign aging players who want a lot of money and may start to decline over the length of their next contract. He's talking about Ed Reed and players like Reed. There is a reason I feel Newsome and Bisciotti aren't talking about Flacco. Joe Flacco is a quarterback, and you don't dump your under-30 Super Bowl winning quarterback in order to find a "good value" on the free agent market. There are rarely good values on the free agent market when it comes to quarterbacks. Flacco is a young guy and the quarterback position isn't a spot on the roster a team should mess around with finding "good values."

We're trying to build where we can win Super Bowls more than just one more time. I think our team is structured differently this time also. We do have some veterans that will probably be retiring but we have a great nucleus of young players and players that are just heading into their prime that we're going to build this team around.''

So "goodbye Ed Reed" is how I read this. Joe Flacco is a part of the nucleus the Ravens want to build around. I can't fathom a situation where the Ravens dump the "veteran" Flacco because there is another quarterback they want to build the team around. That is unless the entire front office is on drugs and are really excited to build around the read-option capabilities of Tyrod Taylor at the expense of losing Flacco.

Would the Ravens dare let Flacco go -- to Cleveland, in the division, to a bitter rival, or to another team like Buffalo or Arizona?

No, they would not let that happen. These comments weren't directed at Flacco and even if they were they were all a part of contract posturing. I don't think Flacco is one of the players the Ravens don't care to build around. Peter is reading these comments all wrong.

Would the Ravens be confident enough in their ability to retool on the fly with two extra first-rounders to deal for Alex Smith, let's say, and throw the gauntlet down and say to the Browns: Go ahead and take Flacco; we'll beat you anyway?

What is Peter's obsession with Alex Smith and NFL teams signing Smith for a year or two and then finding another quarterback? It's not like Smith is 33 years old. If a team wants to sign him, he's the quarterback of the future and the now, not an aging quarterback who only has a couple of good years left in him. I can see the Ravens franchising Flacco, but I don't see there being an outright plan to franchise him only to sign Alex Smith and then get two first round picks when another team signs Flacco. I can't believe this is the Ravens plan or would be an option for the Ravens.

Flacco is 28. He is at the peak of his earning potential right now, coming off an incredible postseason (4-0, 11 touchdowns, no interceptions). He is a principled guy. It'd be interesting to see how he'd react if no team stepped up with an offer sheet and he had to return to the Ravens to play in 2013 for significantly less than he was offered last offseason by the club -- and before he became Joe Clutch in January and February. He would not be pleased. What would that mean? A holdout? Rancor of some other sort? I don't know. But playing for $14.5 million would not make Flacco happy.

Which is why a long-term deal is going to get done. I think we can absolutely count on this happening. The Ravens are (a) not talking about Flacco when discussing the youth movement and (b) simply posturing in negotiations even if they were talking about Flacco. They are not going to let him go in free agency as long as they can help it.

But think of the shot of adrenalin for the Browns, if they could rip away Flacco from a team they despise. What sweet irony for Cleveland, to steal the Super Bowl-winning quarterback from the team that stole their franchise.

It makes for a really cool narrative and story, but that's all this really is. It's a fun story that Peter can talk about to kill time. The Browns may want Flacco, but I doubt they have a realistic shot at getting him.

imagine Cleveland signing Flacco for five years and $110 million, making him the highest-paid player in history. And say Cleveland makes the 2013 salary $35 million. That way it'd be almost impossible for Baltimore to match; if the Ravens balked at $20 million per, you think they'd accede to $35 million in Year 1?

This is all a fake scenario that is fun to talk about when there is no football being played. It's entirely speculative and only manages to kill space in MMQB.

So in my scenario, Baltimore passes on matching. Then the Ravens take the sixth pick in the 2013 first round and fortify the aging defense with the best linebacker or pass-rusher. Then, I'd assume, the Ravens would try to acquire a veteran quarterback in exchange for a mid-round pick (Alex Smith?) or a late-round pick (Matt Flynn?) and also draft a rookie, so that there would be two QBs in camp to compete with Tyrod Taylor for the starting job. The Ravens with two addition first-round picks over the next two drafts ... a dangerous proposition considering what a strong personnel and scouting staff Newsome oversees.

OR, and just bear with me here, the Ravens could ensure they have a decently competent quarterback for the next five years and re-sign Flacco, not have to trade any draft picks for backups or worry about the quarterback position in any way over the next half-decade, and use their draft picks and strong personnel and scouting staff to draft good young players in order to replace the aging ones they aren't re-signing. I don't know, my suggestions seems a bit less risky and more probable.

Then there's the issue of whether Flacco would want to leave. He wouldn't; I can promise you that. But he would if he felt he'd made a fair proposal to the Ravens and they turned it down.

And further down the rabbit hole we go...

One more thing about what Bisciotti and Newsome implied the other day. Committing a cap number of $20 million to Flacco this year would cut off the ability to franchise any other players in the next two years -- like much-needed linebacker Dannell Ellerbe or pass-rusher Paul Kruger this year -- and it hamstrings the ability of the team to make smart football decisions over the next two years.

No offense to Dannell Ellerbe or Paul Kruger, but if they choose not to re-sign with Baltimore over the next couple of years then I think it would be worth it to have kept Flacco around. I'm not sold that Flacco is a top-5 quarterback in the NFL, but an NFL team simply can't discard their quarterback without a competent quarterback already in place. There are no "franchise" quarterbacks supposedly in this draft, trading for Matt Flynn or Alex Smith seems uninspired at best, and losing Flacco would be a huge loss to the morale of the Ravens team. Maybe the whole speech by Newsome and Bisciotti is an explanation as to why they will re-sign Flacco and rely on younger players over the next few years as opposed to re-signing guys like Ellerbe or Kruger?

Exclusive-tagging Flacco would likely, but not certainly, mean the losses of Ellerbe and Kruger and the iconic Ed Reed, and maybe even Anquan Boldin if he won't lower his $7.5 million salary for 2013. Reed's understandable. Losing two of the others, or all three, would be major blows.

Contracts can be re-worked and the Ravens can find other way to free up money for Ellerbe and Kruger over the next couple of years. They have time and they can have a way to find the money. Maybe Anquan Boldin was one of the players Newsome and Bisciotti were talking about in reference to players who are veterans and may have to find a job elsewhere. That seems somewhat likely to be true.

It's a big gamble. If you're a Ravens' fans, you have to hope it doesn't come to that -- and that Linta and Moriarty can get a long-term deal in the next three weeks.

As a Ravens fan why would someone hope it doesn't come to this? After all, the Ravens can trade for Alex Smith or Matt Flynn to compete with Tyrod Taylor AND have two first round draft picks. Wasn't Peter just telling us what a great option this may be?

Regarding Gregg Williams taking an assistant's job with Tennessee: Question anyone giving Williams a job; that's fine. But why the rancor over letting a man who served his time be reinstated? Williams was suspended indefinitely in 2012 and told his reinstatement would be considered after no less than a season if he cooperated with the NFL's investigation (he did), and if he actively participated in spreading the word about sportsmanship and how dangerous bounties are. Williams spoke to at least 23 football teams and youth sports group while suspended. So what merit would there be to ban him for longer than a year? (In fairness, I must disclose that I am represented by the same agent as Williams -- Marvin Demoff -- so if that colors what you think of my opinion, so be it. I have not spoken to Williams since well before his ban.)

I don't believe Peter King has an agenda with Gregg Williams, but it seems natural that he would pump up his agent's clients whether it be intentionally or unintentionally. Just remember this next year when Peter has the Rams winning the NFC West and making the Super Bowl. Actually, Peter may just not predict good things for the Rams, but continuously tell us how they are on the right track. Doesn't Peter have the same agent as Jeff Fisher? I don't remember him ever disclosing this, but maybe he felt like he never needed to.

Tell you who I think would be a great fit for Baltimore at 32 in round one, if he's there: inside linebacker Manti Te'o

Yes, IF Te'o is there at #32 in round one. There's a chance he may just be a ghost or not even exist at that point in the draft.

Other potential big spenders: Indianapolis ($46 million under), Miami ($47 million under), Tampa Bay ($31 million under). Ryan Grigson, the Colts GM, with real money to spend? Dangerous proposition.

Call me crazy, but I think it is somewhat dangerous for teams with money to spend to spend that money. The urge to overpay for players or outbid another team in order to acquire a player they like, simply because they have the money to do so, seems really great to me. Obviously it is very good to have cap room, but it's very dangerous for NFL teams to have money in their pocket and big plans to spend it in free agency. That's how players get overpaid. Now, Ryan Grigson may not do this, but the fans see the Colts have $46 million in cap space and they expect the team to spend a good portion of that money. This is how Ray Maualuga could get $40 million in free agency this year, teams with cap space and an overriding urge to spend this cap space will offer him that much money.

One GM told me the most intriguing free agents on the board are Philadelphia cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and Cincinnati tackle Andre Smith.

Oh boy, here goes Peter King talking up Nnamdi Asomugha once again. Let me guess, the Jets are interested in him or is it the Patriots? We all know Asomugha is one of the most coveted free agents in the history of free agency because one GM told Peter he was "intriguing." I still recall Asomugha's free agency two years ago when he eventually signed with the Eagles. Peter treated Asomugha as the most important free agent since Reggie White.

Logical, I suppose, that the Saints, likely to switch to a 3-4 defense, would take the most available 3-4 coordinator to coach. Ryan won out over Todd Grantham and Romeo Crennel. But I've started to wonder about Ryan in recent years.

What Peter means is that he wondered about Rob Ryan once he stopped just assuming Ryan was a defensive genius and he actually did some research into how well Rob Ryan's defenses tend to play. If Ryan's name was Rob Harris then he would be an unemployed defensive coordinator or coaching linebackers somewhere, not getting multiple opportunities to be an NFL defensive coordinator.

Last year he had to overcome tremendous injuries with Dallas, so you can excuse a mediocre season there. But in nine years in Oakland, Cleveland and Dallas, he's had a top-10 defense only once, in terms of yards allowed. In scoring defense, Ryan has never coached a top-10 defense.

Well, that's because Ryan has never worked for a really good NFL team. How do expect him to do coaching in Oakland and Cleveland? It's not his job to make these teams and their defenses better. That's the head coach's job. It's Rob Ryan's job to coast off his last name until someone finally recognizes him for the genius that he is and offers him a head coaching job.

His teams' sack production was better than the yardage or scoring numbers, four times ranking between sixth and ninth in average sacks per offensive play.

For fear of sounding too much like Gregg Easterbrook, it seems Rob Ryan's defenses tend to be good at the creating sacks and appearing to be very capable, but statistically this isn't true.

What can Saints' fans expect from Ryan? Well, there's no place to go but up; New Orleans allowed more yards in 2012 than any other NFL team in history. But his record in his first year has been mixed. Oakland was the 30th-rated defense in yards allowed in 2003 and finished 30th in Ryan's first season, 2004. Cleveland was 26th the year before Ryan arrived and 31st in his first year, 2009. Dallas was 23rd overall in 2010 and Ryan got the Cowboys to 14th in 2011.

The good news for the Saints is they can't go any lower than 32nd in the NFL in total yards. So that's a positive, right?

I will top my Tuesday column with an analysis of the 49ers offense and how offensive coordinator Greg Roman is coping with the pain of the last drive of the season -- four downs that netted jut two yards from the Baltimore seven-yard line and handed the Ravens the 34-31 victory. The play calling's interesting enough. The 54 different alignments in 60 offensive snaps portend good things for the Niners' future.

You may say, "Why does using different alignments mean good things are in the 49ers' future?" Because I'm guessing next year NFL teams will get extra points for using many different alignments during a game. 54 different alignments in one game. If a team uses 10 different alignments in a game they get an extra two points, so this would have been a whole 10 extra points for the 49ers because they used different alignments during the Super Bowl. 

Think Jim Caldwell was good for Joe Flacco? Check out the 13 Baltimore games before Caldwell was named offensive coordinator, and the seven games he worked as Flacco's offensive coordinator:

Jim Caldwell: Possibly a really good offensive coordinator. Let's leave it at that for now.

So as much as it was a painful move for John Harbaugh to change from Cameron to Caldwell with three games left in the regular season, it was obviously the right move.

Gregg Easterbrook still thinks John Harbaugh did it to transfer blame off of him when the Ravens flamed out in the playoffs. Despite the fact this makes absolutely no sense and to fire the offensive coordinator would only serve to put more attention on Harbaugh's coaching personnel decisions and how the Ravens performed in the playoffs, this is what Gregg claimed.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

I'm not much of an airport fan. Airports are things you cope with; you don't enjoy them. Except in cases where you're pleasantly surprised, the way I was last Monday.

Everything worked out perfectly for Peter and there was no minor inconveniences that normal people usually ignore when traveling that totally ruined Peter's entire trip. Peter loves it when everyone gets out of his way, the free coffee is tasty, and people in a crowd are minding their own business so that Peter can go about critiquing their lives and criticizing what they do in public. If more people would mind their own business so Peter can criticize these people for minding their own business then this world would be a better place.

But I'm a Super Bowl veteran, and I know when the airport is in a smaller city like New Orleans, the day-after is going to be total mayhem, with long security lines and every seat taken on every flight out of town. That increases the chance of getting that dreaded middle seat in coach, the seat that, if an airline president were ever to be sentenced to one for a two- or three-hour flight, he'd surely ban them or risk burning in hell on judgment day.

Why can't Peter have his own private plane for travel use, NBC/Sports Illustrated? Your answer will never satisfy Peter because he knows he deserves to be on his own plane where he can watch "Seinfeld" re-runs while listening to U2 and staring at Brett Favre posters circa-1997 that line the cabin and stare back at him while he drinks his free Starbucks coffee and Meryl Streep acts out every role she has ever played just for him. That's all Peter asks. Don't say it is too much, because it isn't.

I had flown out of the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in southern Mississippi before, and I figured, "Who would think to fly out of there on the day after the Super Bowl?'' A few savvy travelers, but most would either fly Monday out of New Orleans or wait to Tuesday to get a flight from New Orleans.

Plus, there is always something to do in southern Mississippi if someone gets bored. If only there were someone to visit in southern Mississippi, then that probably cemented Peter's decision to fly out of southern Mississippi. I wonder if there was someone that Peter knows really well and he may or may not have a borderline obsession with...but I can't think of any cities in southern Mississippi that would be near any ex-Packer quarterback and his home, do you? 

The difference in travel time -- 76 miles from my New Orleans hotel to Gulfport-Biloxi, 13 to the New Orleans airport -- would be made up, I hoped, by no lines and maybe even some room on the plane.

We know why you really went to southern Mississippi, Peter. Brett Favre is the reason. Less traffic as compared to the New Orleans airport was just an added bonus. Don't try to fool us.

The trip took 70 minutes. I walked the keys for the rental car 50 yards to the rental counter inside the terminal. I checked my two bags at Delta in two minutes. The kiosk spat out the heavenly upgrades from coach to business on both legs of the Gulfport-to-Atlanta and Atlanta-to-LaGuardia.

Upgrades? Finally there is an airport that treats Peter King like the royalty he knows himself to be!

Twenty-nine Super Bowls. Best postgame Monday of them all.

A little special Favre-time will do that to Peter.

"how do you fine Bill B for grabbing an official to ask a question and not fine a player for shoving one?"

-- @JamesPGerry, a fan, after a league official said Saturday Ravens cornerback Cary Williams would not be fined for two-hand shoving the head linesman in the Super Bowl. He referred to the $50,000 fine Patriots coach Bill Belichick got in Week 3 for attempting to grab an official at the end of a game to ask him a question when the official wouldn't stop.

Anyone with half an eye could see that the two-hand shove of the official was a far more egregious offense than the grabbing of an official after a game.

Peter is absolutely outraged that Cary Williams wasn't hung for shoving the head linesman in the Super Bowl. I guess the moral of this story is that if you are going to bump into an official or shove an official then you should do this during the Super Bowl.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think no matter what the NFL's explanation for not fining Baltimore cornerback Cary Williams for his two-handed shove of 11-year-veteran head linesman Steve Stelljes in the Super Bowl -- most likely his "reasoning'' that he was enraged getting up from a pile and didn't know he was shoving an official -- it will be weak and flimsy. In a league in which Frank Gore gets a $10,500 fine for wearing his socks too low in the NFC Championship Game and Bill Belichick gets docked $50,000 for grabbing an official (and not holding on),

Peter feels very strongly about this issue. Cam Newton got fined $21,000 for fining an official as well, so Cary Williams definitely deserved at least a fine. Still, it doesn't matter at this point and Peter needs to move on.

2. I think of all the controversial decisions the NFL has made this year, the one to not fine or sanction Williams is the easiest to rip. It's wrong on 77 levels.

Holy shit, just drop it. It's over. Williams should have gotten fined or ejected from the game. He didn't. Somehow we all manage to move on. You should too. 

The NFL has just said that it's OK, in the heat of the moment, for a player to put both hands on an official and shove him back angrily. I would love to be a lawyer next year when a player touches an official and is fined. That'll be the easiest appeal ever -- and if I lose, I just go to the media and show both incidents and say, "What bureaucratic nimrod dispensed this kind of justice?"

Then Roger Goodell and the NFL will ignore this question and go back to ruling the world.

3. I think, by the way, that if it were Ndamukong Suh who shoved the head linesman in the Super Bowl, he would be lucky if his punishment were being suspended for the first game of the 2013 season and nothing more. 

Can you tell it is the first week of the offseason? Officials getting shoved take up the first three parts of what "Peter thinks he thinks."

5. I think this is a sentence I never thought I'd write in my life: Joe Flacco went to the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Show at Fashion Week in Manhattan the other day.

You didn't have to write the sentence, mostly because this is a shockingly uninteresting fact.

6. I think that's what a good husband does. Flacco and wife Dana did the hang-out-with-Hilfiger thing. There's a good chance Joe would have liked to be an ordinary Joe that day, but why not treat your wife to a front-row seat for one of the big shows on the runway in New York?

Plus, since he is going to be a free agent and the Ravens aren't going to re-sign him then he needs to make sure his wife sees other cities outside of Baltimore so they can make an educated decision on where to sign once the Ravens don't re-sign him.

8. I think ProFootballTalk made a great point Saturday about one aspect of the free-agent market: the tackle conundrum. There are so many good ones who will be free -- Jake Long, Brandon Albert, Andre Smith, Jermon Bushrod, Ryan Clady (likely to be franchised), Sebastian Vollmer and Sam Baker -- that the value will go down. Teams can likely to get a good tackle for $7 million or $8 million a year if they're patient.

ProFootballTalk made this great point. Now ProFootballTalk will put in the "Rumor Mill" that Peter King agreed with their point and report on Peter's report on PFT's report. So NBC has some really great synergy going where each respective arm of their sports division are working together to report a story, produce corroborating agreement with the story and then report on the report of the corroborating agreement. I love good corporate synergy.

d. Watching the blizzard coverage on TV in New York Friday, I was sure thousands would be killed by the crush of snowflakes. Then I woke up Saturday, put on the TV, and saw pretty much the most common thing that happened in the Tri-State Area was that people were going to have to shovel for four hours.

e. We do tend to overreact to weather in this country.

"We tend to overreact to silly things like the weat---(Peter raises his coffee cup to his lips and begins to take a sip) What the fuck? Why the hell does this hotel coffee taste like crap? I will never stay in your hotel again Marriott. It's 6:30am and I can't get any decent coffee? What kind of world do we live in when hotels can't make decent coffee for weary travelers? This is a convenience that everyone should be provided by a hotel and I'm pretty sure 'access to good, free coffee' was in the Bill of Rights."

(Peter King opens up his computer, walks to a brothel and starts writing MMQB for three hours while complaining about the quality of people who surround him)

f. Got sick when I got home from the Super Bowl. Got reacquainted with Luden's cough drops. What's better than a Luden's cough drop? Almost makes you want to have a sore throat.

Really, these cough drops make you want to be sick? You have no brains for brains.

h. Beernerdness: Strand me on a desert isle

Gladly. Done.

with Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan brown ale, and I'll be just fine.

You read what he wrote NBC/Sports Illustrated. Peter wants to be stranded on a desert isle. You gave him a van last summer for his Training Camp tour. It only seems right you strand him on a desert isle like he asks.

j. My wife hates to play me in Monopoly because it brings out the sick competitor in me. And God help you if you don't give me the iron as my token.

So Peter has a history of pouting and getting upset when he doesn't get something exactly the way he wants it? You don't say.

The Adieu Haiku

Here comes the Combine.
Time to overrate college kids.
Stay sane, Mike Mayock.

You know what? Let's be really nice to Peter. Let's strand him on a desert isle with Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan brown ale AND Monopoly. That seems fair and kind enough.