Joe Flacco’s closest friends on the team would start the annual ribbing around draft time. This is the year, they’d tell him, that the Baltimore Ravens were going to use an early-round pick on his replacement.
Flacco, never lacking in self-confidence, consistently shrugged off the banter. But as he sat down to watch the 2018 draft, he knew the Ravens were at least thinking about his heir apparent. They almost had to amid a challenging three-year stretch that included just one winning season and no playoff berths. The Ravens offense had grown stale and Flacco, the venerable Super Bowl-winning quarterback who led it, had recently turned 33.
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By the time the 2018 draft rolled around, the Ravens’ triumph in Super Bowl XLVII following the 2012 regular season seemed like a distant memory.
“We were watching the first round together at his house and we ended up trading back a couple of times and getting (tight end) Hayden Hurst. We kind of looked at each other and it was like, ‘Well, there it is,'” said former Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta, one of Flacco’s best friends. “Then, all of a sudden a couple of picks later, we saw that Baltimore traded back into the first round. At that point, before they even announced the pick, we knew they were coming to get a quarterback.
“When they drafted Lamar (Jackson), Joe knew it then. You don’t spend that high of a pick on a quarterback and not want to see him on the field at some point.”
Flacco’s 10-plus-season run as the Ravens’ starting quarterback lasted about six more months, a hip injury sending him to the sideline in November 2018 and triggering a quarterback transition that happened earlier than anyone expected. Four years and three teams later, Flacco, who is replacing the injured Zach Wilson, is preparing to face the Ravens for the first time since they unceremoniously traded him to the Denver Broncos in February 2019 and officially ushered in the Jackson era.
The matchup between the one-time starter and understudy provides good theater for the regular-season opener between the Ravens and New York Jets Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. It also offers a reminder of a quarterback transition in Baltimore that had the potential to be far more difficult and contentious than it actually was.
“There was no awkwardness. Joe was respectful to him, Lamar was respectful to him. They both understand their roles on the team and their positions,” said former Ravens guard Marshal Yanda. “Joe never got butt-hurt or anything like that. When you truly understand the game, you understand that’s part of the deal and it is what it is. Joe took it in stride. He handled it the best way possible. Obviously, we all would have liked it to end differently that year, where Joe had a better sendoff. But that’s just not the way the NFL is.”
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Flacco and Jackson both took turns praising each other Wednesday. Jackson said “it meant a lot” to have a chance to learn from a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Flacco lauded Jackson’s will and toughness.
“He’s just a football player,” Flacco said. “He’s tough, he loves going out there on Sunday and playing. You can tell that.”
Predictably, neither Flacco nor Jackson had any interest in making Sunday’s game about them.
Flacco and Jackson didn’t grow particularly close in their short time as teammates. A dozen years apart, they were in opposite stages of their careers when they shared a quarterback room in Baltimore alongside another former first-round pick Robert Griffin III. The personalities of Flacco and Jackson are also as vastly different as their playing styles.
Yet, by all accounts, their relationship was plenty cordial and professional. There was no palpable tension. Flacco didn’t phase out Jackson or show any “pettiness,” as Jackson put it. Flacco has gotten some criticism in the past for saying that it wasn’t his job to mentor his young backup, but Jackson found him willing to answer questions and provide input. Flacco was always a guy, though, who was wary of forcing his perspective and point of view on teammates.
“They were very different, but when they were around each other, you never felt there was any issue,” former Ravens safety Eric Weddle said. “Joe handled it like a pro. You can be bitter and mad and just take it out on the kid. But the kid didn’t have a choice. It’s not like he decided on this. Or you can be a pro about it and try to let it motivate you. Joe probably wasn’t happy about it, but he never let it show.”
It also helped that there was never really a quarterback controversy. The Ravens didn’t draft Jackson with the idea of starting him as a rookie. If they were that sold on the Heisman Trophy winner, they wouldn’t have traded back twice in the first round and selected a 24-year-old tight end in Hurst before ultimately trading back and using the 32nd pick on Jackson.
Joe Flacco and Lamar Jackson will share the field on Sunday for the first time since they were teammates in 2018. (Robin Alam / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)The Ravens knew that Jackson had much developing to do and they’d need to put the right pieces around him. Both would take time. As those things occurred, the Ravens figured that Jackson would at least add a new dimension to their offense with his dynamic skill set.
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The Ravens were still very much Flacco’s team when the 2018 season started and nothing that Jackson showed during training camp and the preseason portended that change was imminent.
“In camp, the times that Lamar was in there, it was rough going throwing the football,” Weddle said. “It wasn’t far-fetched to say that this kid was a long way away from helping the team out.”
Still, that didn’t curtail the questions and the curiosity about Jackson. It wasn’t exactly a secret around the team that Flacco’s form during the 2018 season would go a long way toward determining his future in Baltimore.
“Who is going to be the starter? When is Lamar going to get an opportunity? Is this going to be Joe’s last season? There’s all those questions around it,” said Pitta, whose final season with the Ravens was in 2016 and who was part of Baltimore’s broadcast radio team in 2018. “There was always going to be some uncomfortable situations and some awkwardness just by the nature of the situation.”
Reporters and fans naturally looked for signs of discord between Flacco and Jackson. When Flacco didn’t throw the ball to Jackson, who entered the game at wide receiver and was wide open in the end zone during an early November loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, some questioned whether Flacco just didn’t want the fellow quarterback to score. Of course, that was nonsense. Jackson was Flacco’s last read on the play and Flacco’s eyes never took him in that direction.
Flacco’s body language was analyzed thoroughly whenever Jackson jogged onto the field. But Flacco was always stoic, so that wasn’t a good gauge either.
“They were both extreme pros about it,” Ravens eighth-year tight end Nick Boyle said. “Stuff like that happens all around the NFL. A lot of times, it’s a huge media thing. It’s a huge turmoil thing within the locker room. Joe handled it awesome and Lamar handled it awesome, and they still have a really great relationship.”
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Quarterback transitions are never easy, especially when they involve a player who lifted a franchise to new heights. Flacco, a first-round pick by Baltimore in 2008, led the team to the playoffs in his first five seasons, put together one of the best postseasons for a quarterback ever that was capped by being named Super Bowl XLVII MVP. It ended years of Ravens’ futility in finding a homegrown franchise signal caller. He was still immensely popular with the fans.
Yet, the Ravens arrived at their transition out of necessity. Flacco hurt his hip in that Week 9 home loss to the Steelers, Baltimore’s third consecutive loss, dropping it to 4-5. Flacco was due to miss several weeks, so it was suddenly Jackson’s time.
“When Jonathan Ogden hurt his toe Week 1 of my rookie year, I got to play because of an injury. Was I ready? No, but injuries create opportunities for players,” Yanda said. “Obviously, they drafted Lamar in the first round, so there was something there. I don’t care what anybody says. Your actions speak louder than your words, and when you draft a quarterback in the first round, there’s something to that, for sure. We all knew when you draft a QB in the first round, there is a chance of him playing that year. Everybody knew that.”
The Ravens adjusted their offense on the fly to make Jackson more comfortable and the precocious rookie delivered. He led the Ravens to wins in six of their final seven regular-season games, with the one loss coming in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
Flacco still had a tremendous amount of support in the locker room. He was very close to team leaders, like Yanda and Terrell Suggs, who had won a ton of games with Flacco under center and had long memories of what the quarterback has meant to the franchise.
But what Jackson was doing and how the team transformed with him at the helm was undeniable.
“Lamar just went in and put football first,” Yanda said. “Unfortunately, in this day and age, there’s a lot of egos in the NFL. Certain players when they get to the NFL, their ego is so big that you kind of have to deal with them as teammates. But Lamar was a team player. He cared about the other guys on the team and he showed that through his actions. In the heat of the battle, you find out truly who guys are.”
Lamar Jackson took over as the starting quarterback midway through his rookie season and led the Ravens to victories in six of their final seven regular-season games. (Dale Zanine / USA Today)By the time Flacco was at least healthy enough to be active for game days, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh didn’t really have a quarterback decision to make. In one of his final gestures in a Ravens uniform, Flacco seemed to acknowledge as much.
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Jackson was struggling mightily in a wild-card playoff matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers. A restless fan base called for Harbaugh to replace Jackson with Flacco, who has always been at his best in the postseason. Harbaugh approached Flacco on the sideline to ask his opinion. Flacco told Harbaugh to stick with Jackson.
“They both handled it great,” Harbaugh said Wednesday. “Lamar was excited to be with Joe and learn from Joe, in terms of what Joe could teach him as a quarterback, and he did a great job I thought. Joe was great with Lamar; Joe supported him and helped him, and even at the end there — when Joe came back and Lamar was the quarterback — Joe was very supportive of him there.”
At least publicly, Flacco has never expressed any bitterness toward the Ravens or Jackson. He acknowledged Wednesday that his “competitive nature has certain feelings” about his final year in Baltimore, but he understands it’s all part of the business.
“I’ve talked to Joe a million times about Lamar and there never was any ill will towards Lamar. There was never any animosity between the two. Joe has a lot of respect for Lamar,” Pitta said. “They play different styles of football. Joe recognizes that. You have to completely have an entire shift in offensive philosophy to go from Joe to Lamar. The team was ready and committed to doing that and they did it well. Joe understood that. It wasn’t like Joe and Lamar could coexist for a long time with that roster. Something had to give and you’re always going to opt for the younger, cheaper, flashier option at that point — and Joe understood that.”
Following the end of the 2018 season, general manager Eric DeCosta vowed to find Flacco a good landing spot. That resulted in his trade to the Broncos for a fourth-round pick. Flacco played just eight games in his one season in Denver and was done in by a neck injury. He spent the 2020 season with the Jets and then signed with the Philadelphia Eagles before last year. The Eagles then traded Flacco back to the Jets last October.
Meanwhile, Jackson was the league’s unanimous MVP in his first full season as a starter in 2019. He’s 37-12 in parts of four seasons as the Ravens starter, although playoff success has been elusive.
“It’s about, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ in this league, especially at the quarterback position,” Weddle said. “You’ve got to be one of the top guys every year and if not, the organization has to try and prepare to upgrade the position. I don’t think the Ravens ever had to justify their decision to anybody.”
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Still, even as Jackson has morphed into the face of the Ravens franchise and one of the most dynamic players in the NFL, Flacco remains a beloved figure in Baltimore. And for the first time since his departure, Ravens fans will see him as an opponent.
“We all kind of want the entertainment value of Joe being able to play against his old team and the storylines around it, kind of (them) passing on him in the later stages of his career for the young star in Lamar Jackson,” Pitta said. “It’s worked out really well for the Ravens, but there’s so much history there. I think there’s a lot to prove still for Joe in the NFL. He still relishes the chance to start and play, and whether he says it or not, this game is going to mean a lot to him.”
(Top photo: Nick Wass / Associated Press)
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