Is Tyrod Taylor Enough As Flacco's Backup?

Joe Flacco has started every single game in his Baltimore Ravens career. Since being thrust into the starting position due to injuries to both Kyle Boller and Troy Smith just before the 2008 season, Flacco has started and won more games than any other QB in NFL history over the first five years of a career.

However, s every team must obviously have a backup QB just in case of the unthinkable, is Tyrod Taylor really enough insurance for the team in the event of an injury? There is little to compare Flacco and Taylor, but while the stats cannot tell the story, one would think that the backup would be expected to come in as a replacement and lead the team with minimal need to change the game plan.

Based on their individual skill sets, Flacco is a pure pocket passer, while Taylor is more of a,...out of the pocket guy. Taylor NFL experience has been limited to preseason games a few snaps in mop up duty. His two seasons as Joe's backup has resulted in a total of 30 passes thrown, with 25 of them coming in the meaningless week 17 game of last season when the Ravens lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 23-17.

Other than that, his clipboard holding skills have been excellent. Seriously, Tyrod's performance in Training Camp is visibly different from Flacco's and lend credibility to the concern of whether or not he could come in and lead the team in Joe's absence, be it for part of a game, a few games or the entire season.

Obviously, no one should expect the backup to equally mimic the starter, but in the past, not nearly as many people would question the drop-off in talent between Flacco and former backup Marc Bulger, much less even John Beck or Troy Smith.

The San Francisco found Colin Kaepernick after Alex Smith got injured. Neither Charlie Batch nor Byron Leftwich can compare with Ben Roethlisberger, but the Pittsburgh Steelers at least had two serviceable veteran quarterbacks with starting experience on the bench.

Should the Ravens have an older NFL veteran on the sidelines instead of a guy who has virtually never thrown a significant pass in his NFL career? Hopefully, the Ravens and their fans will never find out and while most teams had had to actually use their backups at times, this had just not happened in Baltimore, at least for the past five seasons.

However, without jinxing Joe or the team, how would you feel with Taylor under center for a significant period of time as opposed to a season veteran as the option in reserve?