Joe Flacco's contract could be biggest in NFL history

USA TODAY Sports

If Joe Flacco and the Ravens reach and agreement, he could make more money to play football than anyone ever.

Joe Flacco played his best football in the playoffs and led the Baltimore Ravens to a surprising Super Bowl victory, and the quarterback is ready to cash in on that performance. Flacco will enter free agency if he doesn't work out a deal with Baltimore, and Ravens are ready to make him the highest paid player in NFL history, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

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If contracts were logical in the NFL, then the best players would get the most money. Of course, contracts are not logical, as Flacco is not the best player in the league, nor the best quarterback. In fact, he hasn't even been the best from his own draft class, but above-average quarterbacks are tough to find in the NFL. Teams will hold on when they find someone who doesn't actively cause them to lose.

Flacco has been a solid quarterback in his time at Baltimore, generally hovering just above the mean. Football Outsiders' DYAR statistic, which measures production adjusted for situation, had Flacco as the 17th-most productive signal caller in the league in 2012. He also finished 25th in ESPN's QBR and and 12th in quarterback rating.

Simply put, the Ravens will be mortgaging a significant portion of future salary caps for a quarterback who has performed no better than the likes of Sam Bradford and Alex Smith. If Flacco doesn't suddenly produce at a high-enough level to match his theoretically high cap number, then the Ravens might not be challenging for another Super Bowl title in a while.

It makes some sense to want to reward a guy that played a huge role in taking a team to the highest level, but the Ravens might want to be careful that the reward is not so high that they find themselves strapped for cash in the future.