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Quarterback Joe Flacco a top 5 QB by 2016

Holy crap! Records are broken and Flacco finally gets labeled as 'elite' by just about everyone. Except some analysts that still think he isn't accurate enough.

By Matthew Stevens
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

With so many lists coming out ranking quarterbacks, SB Nation took a look at the future of the quarterback to see exactly where they think guys will rank in 2016. It's an interesting list to be sure, but some of that is because of their prediction of Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

Ranking Flacco at number 4 by 2016 is lofty praise, especially in the light of Flacco being labeled as a 7th tier quarterback by some analysts. What Ryan Van Bibber says about Flacco really tells the whole story though.

Pairing Marc Trestman and Joe Flacco turned out to be yet another genius move by the Ravens front office. With the deadly combination of brains and a big arm, Flacco broke most of the league's regular season passing records in 2015, but the biggest prize of all was a second Lombardi Trophy. Unfortunately, Trestman was hired away to be the Browns next head coach, once again undercutting Joe Flacco's claim to being an #elite quarterback.

The move to grab offensive coordinator Marc Trestman sounds like a good one. We've heard a ton about how the playbook is essentially staying the same but with some added new wrinkles to it. Some hypothesize that it could be the addition of more passes going to running backs, while others figure it could be utilizing the tight end depth better this season. Whatever those new wrinkles are, they should improve upon Flacco's career best 2014 season.

With a all-around solid offensive line, resurgent rushing attack, and the most weapons in the passing game that the Ravens have ever had, Flacco will have the best chance to back up these predictions. Namely a second Lombardi Trophy, but if he can break most of the league's regular season passing records in the process, it would cement Flacco as one of the best quarterbacks of all-time when added to his historic 2012 postseason run.

In order to do that, Flacco will have to do the following:

  1. Throw for more than 5,477 yards that Peyton Manning put up in 2013
  2. Have more than 468/ completions as done by Drew Brees in 2011
  3. Throw more than 55 passing touchdowns since Peyton Manning did that in 2013
  4. Have better than the 71.2% completion percentage that Drew Brees did in 2011
  5. Have a higher rating than the 87.22 QBR that Peyton Manning had in 2006
If Flacco can achieve any of those, much less most, I'm pretty sure that it still wouldn't keep his haters and analysts from talking about it being a fluke or about how X player bailed him out. Ravens fans know it can be done by Flacco, even if it is unexpected by the most purple shade wearing fan. Either way, we'll take a third Lombardi Trophy from the team and a parade in February.

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