Joe Flacco is NOT an Elite Quarterback

For those who have fallen into the Joe Flacco hype of being part of not only the games best, but ELITE, here's a reality check. I'll start by giving him credit where credit is due. In a nutshell, he had probably the best playoff performance by a quarterback I've ever seen in my short lifetime and ultimately ended up leading a team that should've lost in the divisional round to a Super Bowl victory over one of the toughest defenses in the game. He beat ELITE quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady at their home turfs on the way. If we're judging Flacco based on this postseason alone, he was the best quarterback in that five week period of time. These are the credentials we're hearing from the media that make him an "Elite" quarterback, but I'll also add another one. He has made the playoffs every one of his five seasons he has been in the league for and made it to the AFC Championship game twice (2011 & 2012). It's a very good resume and will certainly get him a nice contract come this offseason, but it does not qualify him as ELITE.

The word, "Elite" gets thrown around far too often in the NFL nowadays. At this same exact time last season we had just as much talk about Eli Manning being an "Elite" quarterback because he's won two Super Bowls. Not only did he win them, but both came against first ballot Hall of Famer, Tom Brady. He now also had one more than his brother Peyton who was considered elite, so that should qualify Eli in that category too right? Well not even a full season after the "Elite Eli" talk was going on, he missed the playoffs while having one of the streakiest seasons of his career. There has been almost no talk, if any, of Eli being elite since.

Up until the 2009 season when Drew Brees lead his Saints to a 13-0 start and won his first Super Bowl, there were only two elite quarterbacks in all of football: Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Manning was putting up stats and winning games consistently and quickly became the face of the quarterback position in the NFL. On the other hand, Brady wasn't officially considered an elite quarterback until he won his third Super Bowl in his fourth season as a starter in 2004. Between those years, it was almost disrespectful to put any other player in that class of quarterback. They weren't just the best, but they were the best of the best. They had a class of their own. They were the, "Elite". Ben Roethlisberger was the closest to enter that pantheon of quarterbacks during that time with two Super Bowl victories, but that fact alone never put him on the same plain as Brady and Manning. His regular season numbers simply just weren't of the same caliber as the elite.

As the game has evolved in the past few years where quarterbacks are carrying a heavier load of the offense than they were back in the day, I feel there are four quarterbacks in that pantheon of the NFL's elite: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers. They've all won Super Bowls, put up astronomical stats and are the face of their respective franchises.

Now, does Joe Flacco really belong on the same level of quarterbacks as these guys? What are his credentials again? One awesome postseason run that ended in a Super Bowl victory as well as making the postseason every year he's been in the league. Lets even go back five weeks ago and remember all the people who had no faith in Flacco. He's been in the league five seasons, gotten the Ravens to the playoffs every year and people still don't have faith in this guy? They had just lost three of the last four games Flacco played the majority of the game coming into the playoffs. I don't blame anyone for not having faith. The defense didn't look great, but neither did Flacco. When was the last time you were worried about Brees not being able to perform in a critical game, or any of the ELITE quarterbacks I named earlier? Hell, when was the last time you saw any of those quarterbacks have a .3 or .4 Total QBR in any game ever in their careers? Flacco had two games of those numbers just in one season, Week 7 against the Texans and Week 15 against the Broncos.

But the reason Flacco isn't elite extends even further than that. Flacco has a career 86.3 quarterback rating while Brees, the lowest of the elite, has a career 94.3 in seven more seasons. Flacco's best rating in a season is only 93.6 back in 2010. Flacco's best season in completion percentage is 63.1%. Brady's career completion percentage is 63.7% (Lowest of the elite). Flacco has also never eclipsed a 4,000 yard or 30 TD season although he was less than 200 yards shy of the yardage feat this season. The four elite quarterbacks have conquered each of those feats at least three times throughout their careers.

Flacco's most impressive stats are his low interception percentage, his regular season record and his postseason victories. His career interception percentage in only 2.2% which is lower than Manning and Brees's career 2.7%. His 68% regular season win percentage (54-26) is better than Rodgers (67%) and Brees (59%). His most impressive stat however is his playoff wins that total nine which is tied with Manning and higher than both Rodgers and Brees.

All that being said, theres one more fact that keeps Flacco out of the "Elite" tier of quarterbacks and that is his lack of individual awards and achievements. Between the four elites, they combine for 30 Pro Bowl selections, 18 All Pro awards, 7 MVP awards and 6 Super Bowls just to name a few. Not only do they have the awards, but between them they also have single season records in Passing Touchdowns, Passer Rating, Passing Yards and Completion Percentage. What records does Flacco own? None. The only awards in his name are his Rookie of the Year, a Super Bowl and a Super Bowl MVP award that Jacoby Jones got robbed of. Jones turned an under thrown deep ball into one touchdown and returned a kick 108 yards for another touchdown which ultimately decided the game. Flacco got the award because he's a quarterback and he didn't do anything to hurt them in the game. Its a tough award for the winning quarterback to lose.

So even if Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl this year and he thinks he's the best in the league and ESPN thinks he's a "Super Quarterback," the fact is he's not. He's not consistent enough in the regular season, he doesn't have the stats and he doesn't have the awards. He just doesn't belong in that same class of quarterback as Manning, Brady, Brees, and Rodgers. He's not on that level yet. I will say Flacco has proved to me and every football fan that he's a very good quarterback. I'd say he's in the same class as Eli and Roethlisberger, but you have to be a truly special player to be amongst the game's "Elite" quarterbacks. Not every player can achieve it, should achieve it, or will achieve it and thats what makes this class so special. Flacco may very well one day achieve that level of greatness, but for now he's a champion and nothing more.