Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco contract extension averages out to $22.1 million per season. That makes him, again, the highest paid player in the NFL. Cue Skip Bayless, commentator on ESPN2’s First Take, with the charge that Joe Flacco is the league’s most overpaid quarterback.
Bayless minced no words, reminding viewers why four years ago, he used to like to call Flacco “Joe Fluke-o.”
“[E]very once in a while, he would throw in an all-time stinker. He was wildly inconsistent,” Bayless said. “And even that year as they rose toward a Super Bowl victory — and I congratulated Joe for that one* — he was wildly inconsistent with some record-low QBR** games that were staggering to me. They were Fluke-o games.”
Bayless went on to cite Flacco’s .500 win average since Super Bowl XLVII, concluding that Flacco is “just pretty good; he’s not great.”
Commentator Stephen A. Smith agreed with some of Bayless’s criticisms, but wouldn’t concede that Flacco is the most overpaid quarterback. And Wola Odeniran over at Baltimore Beatdown rebutted Bayless with a list of six NFL quarterbacks less deserving of their giant salaries.
Just like questions over Flacco’s “elite” status, this debate over the appropriateness of his paycheck has dogged him for years, and will likely continue to do so.
*: He said with an eye-roll.
**: “Total Quarter Back Rating,” a moderately controversial quarterback performance metric proprietary to ESPN.
