Flacco’s Fantasy Factor
The Ravens are turning their season around, putting the disaster that was 2007 in the rear view mirror with convincing wins in their past two games to snap a three-game skid.
There’s no coincidence that B-More’s turnaround has mirrored the two best games of young Joe Flacco’s career. The rookie is starting to emerge as a decent fantasy option as he’s finally beginning to limit his mistakes.
In Week Seven in Miami, Flacco completed a career-best 73.9 per cent of his passes (17-for-23) while tossing one TD and not getting picked. Although he wasn’t nearly as efficient last week at home against the Raiders, Flacco did complete a 70-yard TD pass for a new career best, and he again was not picked off.
Now, I’m not sure I’d start him Sunday with the Ravens heading to Cleveland, owners of a top 10 pass defense, but at this point, I’d definitely say Flacco is worth a spot on your bench.
There were plenty of fears that by throwing the rookie right into the starting role, Baltimore would wind up with Kyle Boller, Part II – a young, talented and highly touted quarterback that it traded up to draft who was thrown to the wolves and never recovered.
The fact that Flacco was coming out of a non-Division I program and that he didn’t exactly excel in preseason certainly didn’t allay any of those concerns.
And with Boller out for the season with a variety of injuries, the team’s options were limited.
But Flacco’s recent performance has to have the B-More brass breathing easier. They even waived Todd Bouman Saturday, leaving the team with just Flacco and the underwhelming Troy Smith as active QBs. Clearly, the gig is Flacco’s, barring injury. Sure, the move was made so the team could address its cornerback situation, but directly or indirectly, it’s a vote of confidence for Flacco.
